Columbus Drinks. Snacks. Discoveries.

One of our favourite tasks is SCOUTING – discovering new, exciting products from around the world. Totally exclusive items that you can use to make customers happy, … … things that no one here has heard of, like soft drinks. (And we all know how soft drinks mean fun.) Look at the way we discovered Fiji water. Yep. Sun and water and lots of beach. Or what about Guarana, or our ALO drinks? And what about Vanilla Coke? We were selling Vanilla Coke before the Coca-Cola reps in Switzerland even knew it existed. Our intuition for what is trending is simply brilliant, just like our relationships around the globe. Our Daniel Schwendimann was the one who knew what was up in the Coke case because he frequents golf courses. With his thoughtful and humorous nature, he can quickly strike up conversations with people, especially over a glass of wine. (One drink that we don’t carry, by the way. But we do have several fabulous beers from Amsterdam.) So, if you have ever enjoyed a wine somewhere in the world and can remember a little bit about the bottle, the circumstance and the location, we can find it for you, of that you can be sure.

… which brings us to SOURCING: Our ability to find and import any product that a friend told you about or that you enjoyed anywhere in the world. It can be a drink, a snack or whatever. The important thing is that you were so thrilled by it that you are certain you want to share this enthusiasm, this product, with your customers. Or at least you just want to just try it out yourself first. For example, our CEO Christian Guidi always has a bag of M&M Peanut Butter candies with him (which don’t even really exist in Switzerland) in his backpack while zipping around on his Harley staying young. Speaking of young and innocent… our non-food items even include nappies (strange, right?). It started when a customer wanted a 5-pack (the same customer, incidentally, for whom we’ve been creating something new and exclusive for their POS every single month since January 2004). We do all of this ourselves, not least because we know who the truly reliable suppliers are and we take care of all customs clearance and paperwork – two words that can cause nervous breakdowns all by themselves. That’s why we have Fiona Jungo, who is responsible for import, to jump all the hurdles for you. In fact, she jumps equestrian hurdles in real life with such passion that we need pull her off by giving her Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups Monday mornings so that she can concentrate on our work again.

… by the way, our services also include the entire PACKAGING – even testing or changing packaging sizes or design, if you want to go with a private label. yes, our – or, YOUR – private labels (those are our trend drinks under your brand) have been booming incredibly for quite a while. Which is why our Reto Guidi – our private label master - has been feeling unrestrained happiness in the same measure and now handles only those, as proactive and ambitious as he is. He has even said that he’d like to have his very own private label for cycling and kite surfing. He’s eyeing our energy drink. And you can be certain that we will do it, because we are luckily very well equipped for any private label – whether for yours or ours. We have our own photo studio and design software which is operated by our quiet, concentrated and talented designer who we like to call a graphic nerd although she finds that rather suspect because in the end, Vivienne Lorenc is Vivienne Lorenc. She does everything super fast and properly without making a big deal of it, just a little noise once in a while. She loves music – which is good to know – and prefers refreshing things such as Birch Water or Go Coco from our product assortment. Or once in a while Fiji water. The good thing with that is, you can be sure of exactly what’s in there. Which isn’t so obvious with some products. That’s why we test any new drink or snack for possible ingredients which are banned or restricted in Switzerland. That way you can be sure that you can sell the product without difficulties.

… which brings us to DISTRIBUTION: We distribute a huge number of brands in Switzerland, or import them ourselves. And to avoid supply bottlenecks, we have a huge warehouse. You can order any time up until 12 noon to receive goods by the next morning, which happens easily because we’re connected with the Hogashop. Whether you want ALO, Birch Water, Go Coco, Guarana or another one of our brands, as long as you are a retailer, convenience store, kiosk, discounter, wholesaler, food speciality store, Cash&Carry or you’re a retail purchaser, you can call us. In fact, (although we shouldn’t really say this, so read silently from here on) even if you are an importer and times are such that, for example, you want to benefit from a good exchange rate, you can feel free to call us. We have experience in that area. And because we sometimes are on the verge of losing our overview of all the products and services we offer, we have Ramona Delucchi to keep things under control for us. She arrived here expressly for this purpose. And, being the fitness aficionado and trained hairdresser that she is, she was able to train and trim us into form in no time. Our administration is in as good of shape as she is – in spite of a few Mars bars or Bounty milk drinks.

… so, now you know a lot ABOUT US. And you surely have noticed that we are an affable team and ready for just about any kind of fun. We make a good impression and actually have good reason to believe that because we simply love our job! And we like all the exciting people that we meet in our work. So just call us and come by. We’re in Risch am Zugersee where it is at least as beautiful as the beach in Fiji. And you’ll be able to see what we do and how we do it and even – because you certainly want to know – why we are called Columbus. It’s because we like to imagine that we are discovering the world for you and for your customers. And like Columbus, we sometimes have the feeling that there is still something unheard of, something undiscovered and if you head off for sea you’ll find exactly what you were looking for. And sometimes something completely different, which is what makes it so fascinating. So call us, come by, we won’t talk you into anything, we promise.