Who owns Schwartau?
Schwartau is owned by Hero Group (Switzerland).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Hero Group — Annual Report 2025, Hero AG. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Hero AG reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland, Lenzburg
- Origin
- 🇩🇪 Germany, Bad Schwartau
- Category
- Food › Condiments, sauces & seasonings › Sweet spreads & nut butters
- Trademark registrant
- SCHWARTAUER WERKE GMBH & CO. KGAA (USPTO)
- Last verified
- · 4 sources
About Schwartau
Schwartau is the German jam brand made by Schwartauer Werke at Bad Schwartau, one of Hero's seven production sites and the plant behind the capacity expansion in bars the group announced for 2026. Hero's history records Schwartau following soon after the group's 1886 founding; its 2025 promotions leaned on flavours such as apricot cinnamon roll and strawberry cheesecake.
Trademark record for Schwartau
The USPTO record for the Schwartau mark lists SCHWARTAUER WERKE GMBH & CO. KGAA as the owner of record (serial number 73143849). A trademark is often held by a group company rather than the listed parent, so the registrant's name can differ from the owner named above.[4]
Ownership timeline of Schwartau
- Current owner Hero Group [1] reported
Where Schwartau sits in Hero Group
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Hero Group ownership tree →
See the full Hero Group brand portfolio (16) →
Other brands owned by Hero Group
Hero Group controls 16 brands on Brandtree, 16 of them in food.
Also in food
- Baby Gourmet
- Beech-Nut
- Corny (1984)
- Deliciously Ella
- Freche Freunde
- Goodies (2024)
- Hero (1910)
- Hero Baby (1985)
- Hero Solo
- Organix
- Queensberry (1988)
- Semper
- Sunar
- The Gut Stuff
- Vitrac (1981)
Other brands in sweet spreads & nut butters, and who owns them
The 35 brands in sweet spreads & nut butters on Brandtree belong to 24 owners. The largest is Halwani Bros, with 4; Hero Group has 4.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Halwani Brothers | Halwani Bros | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia |
| Maple Grove Farms | B&G Foods | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Bega Peanut Butter | Bega | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| Jif | J.M. Smucker | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Chocolion | Patisen | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
| Highland Sugarworks | Rogers Sugar | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| Matina | Cevital Agro-Industrie | 🇩🇿 Algeria |
| Comvita | Comvita | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
About the owner: Hero Group
Hero Group is a privately held company headquartered in Lenzburg, Switzerland, founded in 1886. Brandtree records 16 brands under its control.
Hero is a privately held Swiss food company founded in 1886 in Lenzburg, where its headquarters still are. Arend Oetker acquired a majority shareholding in 1995 and a member of the Oetker family sits on its board. It reported net sales of CHF 1,187 million in 2025 across three categories: Better Snacking, Naturally Good Food, which holds the jams it has made for more than a century, and Others, which holds baby and toddler milk. The Hero 2035 strategy introduced in 2025 committed the group to snacking, and its purchases have followed it: Deliciously Ella in 2024, the Brazilian snack brand Pinati in 2025 and The Gut Stuff in 2026.
🇩🇪 Schwartau and other German brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 243 brands that began in Germany. 90 of them (37%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Schwartau among them.
- 3 Glocken — Princes Group 🇬🇧
- Abraham — Bell Food Group 🇨🇭
- Aldi (Nord) — Aldi Nord 🇩🇪
- Aldi (Süd) — Aldi Süd 🇩🇪
- Almette — Hochland 🇩🇪
- Aptamil — Danone 🇫🇷
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Schwartau?
The parent company of Schwartau is Hero Group, a privately held company headquartered in Switzerland.
Is Schwartau German or Swiss?
Schwartau originated in Germany, but it is owned today by Hero Group, which is headquartered in Switzerland. So Schwartau is a German-origin brand under Swiss ownership.
Is Schwartau still owned by Hero Group?
Yes. As of 2 October 2026, Schwartau is still owned by Hero Group. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (4) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Hero Group — Annual Report 2025 — Hero AG, Annual report; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [2] Hero Group — more than 135 years of conserving the goodness of nature — Hero AG, Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [3] Hero Group — committed to consumers, our brands — Hero AG, Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [4] USPTO: SCHWARTAU, serial 73143849 — United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark registry; retrieved 2 October 2026.
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