In 1907, Helvetia became the first company to produce mustard on an industrial scale in Switzerland. Its mustard was sold in bulk in large stoneware pots under the Langenthaler Senf brand. Subsequently renamed Thomi’s Langenthaler Senf, the brand was eventually registered under the name Thomy’s Senf in 1930, with the ‘i’ being replaced with a ‘y’ in Thomy to make it a more internationally marketable name.
Hans Thomi, the founder of Thomi & Franck SA also decided to sell his mustard in a tube to set it apart from that of his competitors. In 1951 Thomy began mayonnaise production as well, while in 1976 they expanded to introduce bottled salad dressings. Thomy was acquired by Nestlé in 1971.
The Thomy man character, or “Thomymännli”, was the product of a competition held in 1931 in which the company asked its consumers for submissions. The competition received 20,000 responses, and the name Senf-Thomy was chosen along with the famous tube shaped character. The character has been the main icon for Thomy since the early 1990s.[1]
Thomy currently runs operating plants in Karlsruhe and Neuss in Germany, and in Basel, Switzerland.
Popularity in Switzerland
Thomy has been voted among the twenty most popular Swiss brands for the last ten years, demonstrating its popularity in Switzerland.[citation needed] It also enjoys a 99% recognition rate in Swiss households, and is consumed in over 2.3 million households.[citation needed]
An average Swiss household consumes about five Thomy mayonnaise tubes a year as well as three Thomy mustard tubes. The per capita consumption of mayonnaise and mustard in Switzerland is 1 kg and 500g respectively.
Products
In 2008 Thomy launched a new Tartare Light mayonnaise, containing 50% less fat and mayonnaise made from rapeseed oil.[2]
Thomy has recently partnered with Coop Naturaplan and now produces certified organic mustard, mayonnaise, and salad dressings.[3]
1 Currently manufactured by General Mills in the U.S. and Canada. Produced by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand elsewhere. 2 Brand owned by General Mills; U.S. and Canadian production rights controlled by Nestlé under license. 3 U.S. production rights owned by The Hershey Company. 4 U.S. rights and production owned by the Smarties Candy Company with a different product. 5 U.S. rights and specific trade dress owned by Nestlé; rights elsewhere owned by Associated British Foods. 6 Produced by Cereal Partners, branded as Nestlé. 7 Produced by Cereal Partners and branded as Nestlé in the U.K. and Ireland. Produced by Post Foods elsewhere. 8 Philippine production rights owned by Alaska Milk Corporation. 9 Singaporean, Malaysian and Thai production rights owned by Fraser and Neave. 10 Used only in Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. 11 Used only in the Philippines. 12 U.S. production rights owned by the Ferrara Candy Company. 13NA rights and specific trade dress to all packaged coffee and other products under the Starbucks brand owned by Nestlé since 2019. 14 Brand owned by Mars, sold by Nestlé in Canada. 15 Produced by Froneri in the U.S. since 2020.
