SONNENTOR and MM Group – Making and Packaging Gourmet Teas and Spices for over 10 years together  

The Secret Ingredient Behind Great Tea: Great People

In May SONNENTOR hosted MM Group’s Sustainability and Marketing Communications teams at the company’s Sprögnitz, Austria, headquarters. During the tour, visitors experienced the realisation of Johannes Gutmann’s vision. His work began in 1988 when he leveraged a one-page business plan and two weeks of business college to found the company. His goal: to bring organic herbs and teas to market in a way that treated all stakeholders fairly.

Almost 40 years later, SONNENTOR stands as clear proof that a company can be profitable, sustainable and ethical when it works toward the good of all of its stakeholders. MM people learned firsthand how SONNENTOR has built a positive, reciprocal relationship with customers and suppliers, established an excellent workplace for its 360 employees, and reinvested in amenities that help make Sprögnitz a thriving community.

Today SONNENTOR processes tonnes and tonnes of dry goods each year, which requires expansive warehouses and enormous amounts of fibre-based packaging. Concerning the latter, MM Group has played a key role for over a decade. Johannes Höbart, Deputy Head of Packaging Material Purchasing, explained the history of the SONNENTOR-MM relationship: “When Hannes (Gutmann) met with Hannes Köck, Key Account Manager at MM Packaging, the discussion focussed on how sustainable packaging could help bring the SONNENTOR brand to life.”

Höbart went on to explain how this initial meeting established a deep trust between the two companies – a trust that SONNENTOR has seen reinforced through MM’s approachability, knowhow and internal resources. “Packaging changes always impact sales,” Höbart elaborated, “sometimes we face an apparent double-bind where in order to enhance our packaging’s sustainability, we might have to compromise on user experience. A company of MM’s size has so much expertise both in material science and sustainability, that we usually find a way out of such either-or dilemmas by defining a solution that is both more sustainable and makes no compromises on user experience.”   

Ultimately, the partnership between SONNENTOR and MM Group shows that sustainable packaging depends not only on materials, but on shared values, trust and expertise. Together, the companies prove that sustainability, quality and commercial excellence all belong in a winning blend.