“... because we must have oil!”

In the middle of the Great Depression, Gottfried Duttweiler built a factory for fats and soap. However, the government denied him the import quota he needed for production: he was convinced that his influential rival Unilever was to blame.

At the beginning of the 1930s, Gottlieb Duttweiler plans to combine his manufacturing operations for soap, fat and oil in one location in order to reduce production costs. This makes sense because the waste products from the oil and fat manufacturing can be used in the production of soap. Meanwhile, in Basel he establishes the real estate cooperative Gifa AG and buys an old factory next to the Basel Rhine harbour where the raw materials are delivered.
Gifa AG constructs a new manufacturing facility at Giessliweg in 1934. Costing CHF600,000, it has an oil mill for processing coconut and peanuts into cooking oil, and machines to manufacture cooking fat, cleaning agents and washing powder. But the oil mill cannot be put into operation. The government has limited the import of oil and oilseed in an effort to tackle the economic crisis. The quotas are fixed on the basis of the import figures from 1931. But at that time, Migros had a much lower turnover and Gifa AG did not even exist. Accordingly, Duttweiler can import only a fraction of what he could process and sell. He fights using every weapon in his arsenal, sending applications to Berne and arguing that Gifa AG is the only “pure Swiss” oil factory, and that it strengthens the reputation of Switzerland as a manufacturing country and creates jobs during the economic crisis. But instead of the 9,000 tonnes of oilseed he needs to operate the oil mill at full capacity, he is permitted only a derisory 100 tonnes – for a one-off testing of the manufacturing plant.

In the summer of 1934, Migros is quite literally stranded high and dry. Gottlieb Duttweiler complains that the new factory in Basel is “often almost totally lacking in goods, as are our sales shops and sales vans”. He places advertisements in his desperate search for cooking oil, offering “20% above the international market price, because we must have oil!”
Of all companies, it is his arch-enemy Unilever, with its monopolistic market position, which offers him 100 tonnes of coconut oil. Duttweiler has had a running fight with the multinational concern since he started producing fat himself. He has already fought many legal battles against Unilever and is convinced that it and its subsidiaries are behind the government’s refusal to allow him the import quota. But he has no other option but to buy the coconut oil – for a third more than the market price.
When the quotas are redistributed in 1939, Gifa AG is again passed over. Then the Second World War breaks out, and Gottlieb Duttweiler has to wait until peacetime before Gifa AG can be brought into full operation.