At the age of 24, Alfred “Fredy” Hiestand set up his first bakery with second-hand dough machines in an unused laundromat.

In 1967, together with Albert Abderhalden, he laid the foundation for a convenience frozen baked goods group that, before its takeover in 2008, generated sales of 740.7 million Swiss francs with around 3,200 employees.

[1] A year later, Hiestand developed the first croissant dough pieces as a semi-finished product for bakeries, which he sold to major customers.

In 1988, the decisive factor was the pre-fermentation of the dough before freezing, so that it could be baked quickly and easily later on at the point of sale.

[7][8] In August 2008, the company merged with its largest shareholder, the Irish IAWS Group, to form Aryzta.