Werner Lampert
The sustainability pioneer

"I would never have dreamed that one day I would have such a fantastic team"

Werner Lampert addressed his company's experts at a summer party. But who is Werner Lampert? And why did he never think he would be at this point?

Originating from the Ländle

Werner Lampert spent most of his childhood on a farm in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg, where he cultivated his own section of his grandmother's vegetable garden and discovered his passion for farming at an early age. In addition to vegetables, he developed a very special bond with animals that are an integral part of the Alpine mountain world: cows.

"I rubbed my head against her body and sought her tenderness, her warmth, her affection. [...] I told cows about the first time I fell in love - and also about my first heartache. The cows were the first to know about my career aspirations," writes Werner Lampert in "Die Kuh - Eine Hommage", a 480-page declaration of love.

What career aspirations did he mention back then?

As early as the 1960s, he was inspired by the first pioneers of organic farming. He was fascinated by the writings of Rudolf Steiner, whose portrait still adorns the office today, and his concept of biodynamic farming.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Werner Lampert opened a wholesale business for organic food in Vienna.

In 1994 he developed the organic brand Ja! Natürlich. It was always clear to him that organic only makes sense if it is linked to sustainability and transparency. Therefore, together with experts who are still part of the company, the comprehensive Prüf Nach! standard was developed based on 8 basic values that still demonstrate incredible foresight and validity today.

The birth of Zurück zum Ursprung

The Prüf Nach! standard set new standards, but until then only on paper. And now Werner Lampert's love of cows and their milk comes into play. Due to low milk prices and high competition from large industrial farms, the production of hay milk in Austria was no longer lucrative in the early 2000s. In a heroic sprint in 2006, the LAMPERT team, together with HOFER/ALDI, the Upper Styrian Dairy and Murau farmers, set up a project that was to become a success story. Hay milk was saved and Back to the origins was born.

Success in cohesion

Today, a quarter of Austrian agriculture is organic, more than in only a few countries worldwide. Without Werner Lampert, this development would have been unthinkable. But he also knows that the usual hierarchical structures of the past would not have brought success. Even if Werner Lampert had not seen himself in such a wonderful and cooperative team in the past, today he stands together with his employees.

What do you mean by standing here? We go on, on and on.

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