100 years of Dr. Schär: from niche pioneer to global inclusive nutrition specialist

This year, Dr Schär celebrates its 100th anniversary. It was back in 1922 that our founders Dr Anton Schär and Gottfried Untertrifaller launched their first product and we have been making nutrition more inclusive and food enjoyable for all ever since. 

At the centre of our celebrations to mark this major milestone is a special project to promote biodiversity – ‘Field 100’ – a concept that’s key to our present-day mission that also has deep roots in our past.

Working to provide people with the right products to meet their nutritional needs from our base in the heart of the Alps has always required us to cultivate a huge variety of minor crops. And this experience in creating diverse crop cultures has become increasingly important as we look to the future, allowing us to promote biodiversity as part of our commitment to helping create a greener, more sustainable planet.

As a long-lived family company, Dr Schär thinks in terms of generations rather than short-term business cycles and we are dedicated to protecting the world and benefiting our customers, employees, communities, societies and environment.

Here we look back over a century of catering for diverse nutritional needs, bringing people together, and growing from a small firm to a global gluten-free specialist forging a sustainable future. 
 

Our milestones

In 1922 in the South Tyrol Dr Anton Schär and his mill owner brother-in-law Gottfried Untertrifaller launch their fortified wheat semolina to tackle child malnutrition after World War I. Their business flourishes and they diversify their product range to include rice cream, sago, tapioca – all plant-based, carbohydrate-packed, easy to digest and naturally gluten-free, widening their goals to develop healthy products and relieve food-related suffering for adults as well as children

The company continues to develop over the decades, until the young businessman Ulrich Ladurner gets permission to use the Dr Schär name for his natural, health-oriented food brand. During an interview on local TV in 1980 he has the inspired idea of creating a range of specialist gluten-free products geared towards those with coeliac disease and gluten intolerances.

The Schär brand, specialising in gluten-free products, is officially launched on the market in 1981. In 1985 the brand unveils its first gluten-free pasta, created in conjunction with doctors and coeliac associations. It also launches its first gluten-free baked goods – Savoiardi, Fette Biscottate and Grissini – producing them itself in a small bakery with a rack oven Schär launches its first gluten-free White Bread. The gluten-free range continues to grow as it embraces the mission encapsulated in its slogan ‘We solve dietary problems’. It also opens a new factory hall with its first industrial production line.

Schär becomes market leader in Italy and sets its sights on the rest of Europe, expanding in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Germany. The company cements its success by moving into brand new headquarters in Burgstall, complete with a new production hall and office buildings. It also expands its portfolio beyond gluten-free products to embrace other types of inclusive nutrition under specialist brand names.

The firm reinforces its commitment to sustainability with its Panini Rolls – the world’s first gluten-free bread to be packaged in certified recycled plastic – and introduces a company-wide sustainability strategy.

Dr Schär turns 100. Still based in Burgstall and headed by Ulrich Ladurner, it is now an international enterprise with 18 production and distribution sites in 11 countries and employing 1,500 people.

Dr Schär has undergone many changes over the last century but our commitment to meeting people’s diverse nutritional needs and cultivating minor crops has not faltered.

This focus is reflected in the project we have chosen to undertake to celebrate our 100th anniversary. ‘Field 100’ is an effort to create the most biodiverse field ever cultivated and, as such, is a living expression of our commitment to promoting and preserving biodiversity.  

More than that, it’s an example of the innovative pioneering spirit that has sustained the company over the last century and we hope will help us to continue growing a better future for our people, communities and planet for many years to come.