SFH Swiss Financial Holding AG invests in Heimat

On 9 January 2024, the company Koch & Gsell AG had to file for insolvency due to a lack of liquidity and the loss of its tobacco license ("Revers"). Shortly afterwards, the founder of Koch & Gsell AG, Roger Koch, launched the successor company Pada Switzerland GmbH, which has been manufacturing all products in the Heimat range again since mid-March. Now, the family-run SFH Swiss Financial Holding AG (SFH) from Gossau, a company from Eastern Switzerland, is joining Heimat .

Hemp experiments since 2015

Samuel and Benjamin Wüst, co-owners and board members of the family-run SFH, and Roger Koch held initial exploratory talks in February 2024. Koch was looking for capital and strategic partners, while the Wüst brothers were open to "other exciting projects", as they say. The SFH Group includes industriepark.sg (a 40,000 m2 building complex including a fully automated high-bay warehouse), the Bambolino children's indoor playground and the two food manufacturers Bufis and Alder's-Food. All of the entrepreneurs have been taking their first steps in the hemp sector independently of each other since 2015: The company Bufis experimented with hemp in the beverage sector back then. Koch developed the first hemp cigarette in 2017. However, the entrepreneurs did not know each other at that time. Seven years later, they now want to work more closely together - and SFH is taking a minority stake in Heimat .

Strategy and synergies

Although Samuel Wüst is joining Heimat as a new Managing Director, Koch will retain operational responsibility. "I will primarily contribute strategically and with our network at Heimat ," says Samuel Wüst. However, both also see synergies in the development of new hemp products: "Three years ago, we made the benefits of hemp accessible to non-smokers with hemp teas and hemp iced tea. We want to make further progress in this field. I see opportunities both for the food companies in the SFH Group and for Heimat," says Roger Koch.

Business and pleasure

Thanks to the large network of both players, opportunities can open up for each other both in Switzerland and abroad. "Samuel Wüst has already opened doors to new partners for me with two or three contacts," says Roger Koch. Conversely, Koch was able to arrange a contact for the manufacture of a new product. Ultimately, however, both agree: "It's at least as much about enjoying what we do, liking it, having similar priorities and preferences as it is about pure benefit. We are both connoisseurs and speak the same language - that of business and that of enjoyment. The order is debatable."

Benjamin Wüst, Roger Koch, Samuel Wüst