Traditional company – Sacher comeback with café and pastry

With a firework of ideas, Matthias Winkler, head of the Sacher Group, wants to put the bitter Corona years behind and expand again: “Before the pandemic, we had 800 to 850 employees and generated a turnover of 92 to 93 million euros. Today we have 550 employees and this year, despite several crises, we hope to achieve 55 to 60 percent of the turnover from 2019.”

Currently, Hotel Sacher has a café in Vienna and Salzburg, and its own coffee houses in Graz and Innsbruck. The Italian Benetton Group also operates a Sacher Café in the Parndorf outlet center. To chart the course for growth, Winkler has drawn up many plans with top advisors:

The first Café Sacher abroad could open this year in Trieste, Italy, and negotiations are in full swing. The contracts have been agreed, but not yet signed. Winkler: “Trieste is an exciting market – there is a local crowd with an affinity for Austria, as well as many tourist ships that can no longer dock in Venice.” As a result, there could be other locations in neighboring countries.

The second point is pop-up shops where Sacher cakes are sold for a limited time. In the summer, the Swiss 5-star Badrutt’s Palace from St. Moritz plans to open a shop in the Paradiso mountain club, which has already hosted Gucci and Co. events. have occurred. Winkler: “Probably the highest original Sacher cake that ever existed at 2100 meters above sea level.” A store like this is also talked about in a luxury shopping center in Monaco before Christmas.

The traditional brand will soon be digitized. Winkler is thinking of a Café Sacher in virtual reality (“Metaverse”) – also to make the cake and the brand better known in China, for example. Because only ten percent of the Chinese have a passport. In the virtual space, an online avatar can become a Sacher guest.

The number of staff should be increased. Winkler: “We need a total of 600 employees, which means that about 50 are missing – especially in the service!”