Adler Pharma Produktion und Vertrieb

Adler Pharma Produktion und Vertrieb is an Austrian family-owned pharmaceutical and personal-care company based in Zell am See, in the state of Salzburg. It is best known for making Schüßler mineral-salt remedies, but its cosmetics arm — the Adler Topics line — places it in the beauty field, with skincare and body-care products built around highly diluted mineral salts. The company remains active, with new product launches in 2024 and 2025 and a generational change of leadership in 2022.

The business grew out of a working pharmacy. Pharmacist Susana Niedan-Feichtinger took over the Adler Apotheke in Zell am See in 1989, encountered Schüßler salts soon after, and began making ointments in the pharmacy cellar before the operation was spun off as an independent company. Today it describes itself as a family business, employs around 50 people, and manufactures its products in Austria.

Niedan-Feichtinger took over the licence of the Adler Apotheke in Zell am See in 1989 and, according to the company, was immediately drawn to Schüßler salts, folding them into her pharmacy advice. After Austria joined the European Union in 1995, it became possible to import and register the salts and sell them exclusively through pharmacies, and the first face creams and other topical products followed. Early manufacturing was modest: a regional encyclopedia records that the first salves were mixed with a hand blender in the pharmacy cellar [7].

The independent company was founded by Niedan-Feichtinger together with her husband, Thomas Feichtinger, in Zell am See, starting with two employees [7]. The Feichtinger connection also runs through the brand's educational side: Thomas Feichtinger helped initiate what became the Handbuch der Biochemie nach Dr. Schüßler, a reference work on Schüßler salts that reached a sixth revised edition in 2017.

The company dates its own founding to October 2000, when Niedan-Feichtinger obtained the licences to manufacture medicines and to trade wholesale, and Adler Pharma was established as an independent firm [2]. A separate legal entity, Adler Pharma Produktion und Vertrieb GmbH — the name the brand carries today — was formed in 2004 to take over all distribution as well as production of the Adler Topics cosmetic line and food supplements [2]. The two dates are sometimes both cited as a starting point; the company consistently treats 2000 as its founding, marking a 20th anniversary in 2020, and the Salzburg regional wiki likewise records a founding of 1 October 2000 [7].

In 2002 the company bought the premises at Brucker Bundesstraße 25 A in Zell am See, roughly 600 square metres, which remains its registered address and the site of its cosmetics production and administration. A larger, 2,500-square-metre production building followed in 2010 in nearby Bruck an der Großglocknerstraße [3]. Later milestones on the cosmetics side included the TOM'S men's face cream in 2015, the Soft Feet foot-care cream in 2016, and the aluminium-free DEOMIN deodorant cream in 2019. The company's core remedy business continued to expand in parallel, with complex Schüßler preparations and, in 2024 and 2025, new herbal and complex medicines.

Adler Pharma is privately held and family-run; no parent company is documented. In a generational handover on 1 February 2022, Dr. Stephan Niedan took over management of the company from its founder, Susana Niedan-Feichtinger, who moved to lead the in-house Adler Academy [2].

The company frames its philosophy around developing and manufacturing high-quality products in Austria while keeping the smallest possible ecological footprint. Alongside that, it states a broader mission: to make what it calls traditional European medicine — Schüßler salts among other approaches — more accessible through product development, research and education, including annual training seminars and its own specialist literature. Its tagline is "Kompetent aus Erfahrung" ("competent through experience").

On the beauty side, the Adler Topics range covers facial and body care "from head to toe," organised around highly diluted mineral salts as its signature ingredient. The line includes the Aquarich moisturising face cream, the TOM'S after-shave balm — which uses a proprietary complex the company calls Cellactive® — Soft Feet foot cream, the DEOMIN mineral deodorant, and Sting Away, a soothing care product for insect bites and stings.

The company says its personal-care products are made to its own formulas using mostly ECO-certified, organic raw materials, and that many are vegan, marked with a green leaf [4]. It publishes a long "free-from" list, stating that the products contain no parabens or other hormone-active substances, no paraffin or petroleum jelly, no PEGs, no sulfates, no silicone oils, no microplastics and no synthetic fragrances [4]. It also describes the products as dermatologically tested for good skin tolerance. No independent cosmetics certification body is named for the range.

Environmental production is a recurring theme. The company built a CO₂-neutral production plant in 2010, heated and cooled using geothermal and groundwater energy with rooftop solar for hot water, a project recognised with Austrian environmental awards [3]. Since 2021 it has offset the disposal of its packaging as climate-neutral by purchasing carbon-offset certificates tied to rainforest protection in Peru [3]. It also notes that its Schüßler-salt tins are recyclable, free of plasticisers and do not shed microplastic. In 2023 the company added photovoltaic installations at both its production site and Zell am See, making its operations largely energy self-sufficient.

The company has received several Austrian business and environmental honours. It was named among the "Trio des Jahres" in 2006 by the Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with Trend magazine and Bank Austria [2], and its 2010 production plant earned klima:aktiv and Umweltservice Salzburg environmental awards. From 2012 it has been certified as an Austrian "Leitbetriebe Austria" leading company, recertified several times.

Adler Pharma is an active company. Its most recent documented activity includes the launch of the Corimia herbal medicine in 2024 and the Zelldolor and Zell Gastrisod complex remedies in 2025 [2]. It manufactures its products in Austria and supplies pharmacies across the German-speaking region, with export partners in several further countries including Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Turkey, Latvia and Dubai [6].