# Ceres ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1991 | | Origin | Switzerland | | Headquarters | Kesswil (canton Thurgau, on Lake Constance), Switzerland | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Kesswil (TG), Switzerland, Nax (VS, Val d'Hérens), Switzerland | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de | Ceres is the brand of Ceres Heilmittel AG, a Swiss family company based in Kesswil on Lake Constance that makes herbal medicines from fresh plants. Founded in 1991, it is known above all for its mother tinctures, the concentrated alcohol extracts that form the starting point of many herbal preparations, and for a patented grinding method it calls the Ceres mortar process [7]. Alongside dilutions and combination remedies, the company produces a small line of organic skin creams, which give it its place in the beauty world. The company remains independent and family-run, now in its second generation. It produces at two sites in Switzerland, in Kesswil and in the alpine village of Nax in the canton of Valais, and runs a German subsidiary near Cologne. Its products are sold mainly through pharmacies and drugstores, and the brand is active as of 2026. ## Origin & founders The company's own pages tell its founding story in two slightly different ways. Its press fact sheet states that Hildegard and Dr. Roger Kalbermatten founded the company together in 1991, with the aim of rethinking how herbal mother tinctures are made [7]. The page describing the Kesswil headquarters, by contrast, names only Roger Kalbermatten as the founder of Ceres Heilmittel AG [4]. Independent coverage supports the joint version: a 2011 report in the Swiss regional newspaper St. Galler Tagblatt described Hildegard Kalbermatten as the company's co-founder and co-owner [14]. The two accounts differ in emphasis rather than substance, and both agree on the year. According to the company, Roger and Hildegard Kalbermatten were among the pioneers of a modern, holistic understanding of plant-based medicines. Their work on how to prepare fresh plants led to the method that still defines the brand. Roger Kalbermatten developed the Ceres mortar process and had it patented in 1995 [7]. The name and setting have stayed constant since the beginning. Ceres describes Kesswil, a village set among apple orchards and meadows in the canton of Thurgau, as the place where its fresh-plant tinctures have been made since 1991. ## History & milestones In 2002 the company moved into a purpose-built building on Bachtobelstrasse, which brought production, filling, quality control and administration under one roof. The same building now also houses the research and development team and the administration of the company's training academy, and a small garden beside it grows every medicinal plant that Ceres processes and that can be cultivated. A second production site followed in Nax, a mountain village at roughly 1,300 metres above Sion in the Val d'Hérens. The company has not published the year it opened. Ceres says the dry, sunny climate of the Valais shapes a flora rich in active compounds, and the site processes alpine plants such as arnica from lean mountain meadows, gentian root from limestone crevices and wormwood from dry south-facing slopes. In Germany, the company operates through Ceres Heilmittel GmbH, a subsidiary based at Schloss Türnich in Kerpen, near Cologne. The company describes the castle as an 18th-century baroque moated palace set in an English landscape park. On the castle island, Ceres keeps a medicinal plant garden where more than 40 species are grown according to biodynamic principles. In 2014, St. Galler Tagblatt reported on a visit to the Kesswil site led by Hildegard Kalbermatten, then the company's managing director [15]. She told visitors that the company was growing strongly in Germany, but that it had to slow that growth deliberately in order to keep its products' quality. Stress among employees, she said, would affect the quality of the remedies. ## Ownership Ceres Heilmittel AG describes itself as a Swiss family company. No outside owner or acquisition has been reported. Management has since passed to the second generation: Christoph Kalbermatten who leads both the Swiss parent company and the German subsidiary [7]. The company's press page puts its workforce at 47 employees across Switzerland and Germany. The German subsidiary does not manufacture. All products are made in Switzerland using the mortar process and distributed in Germany from Kerpen. Ceres Heilmittel GmbH is licensed as a pharmaceutical company in Germany and is supervised by the responsible German medicines authorities, as well as by Swissmedic, the Swiss regulator [6]. ## Philosophy & positioning Ceres presents itself as a maker of plant medicine rather than a cosmetics house. Its stated goal, in the words of its own literature, is to unite the "material and immaterial" active principles of a medicinal plant in a single remedy. Its tagline describes the range as Swiss mother tinctures and special-care creams made with the Ceres mortar process since 1991. The company sums up what it believes sets its preparations apart in four principles, which it calls the four pillars of Ceres quality: - **Plant quality.** Fresh plants come from organic and biodynamic (Demeter) cultivation and from controlled wild harvesting. Ceres says it harvests the plants itself, only by hand and at the ideal moment. - **Manual work.** Each extract is stirred by hand, a step the company describes as creating a connection between person and plant. - **The mortar process.** The plants are ground slowly and thoroughly, without heat or oxidation. - **Maturation.** Each tincture is stored for years so that, in the company's words, its natural range of effects can fully unfold. Ceres compares the process to the ageing of a fine wine. Behind these principles lies a broader conviction, set out on the brand's homepage, that the full strength of a plant survives only through careful and mindful handling. The company also says it sources plants from its own surroundings wherever possible. The brand's positioning sits at the expensive end of its field. Ceres states openly that its mother tinctures often cost about twice as much as comparable preparations from other makers, and explains the difference by its production methods [9]. It also runs an academy offering courses for both lay audiences and health professionals, in person and online, and maintains a directory of therapists who work with plant medicine. ## Products & innovation Most of what Ceres makes is medicine, not cosmetics. The press fact sheet lists 78 preparations, made up of mother tinctures, combination remedies and dilutions from native medicinal plants, plus three organic special-care creams. The company's online shop shows a somewhat larger count, with 81 medicines and three cosmetic products. In a 2011 report, St. Galler Tagblatt described the products as homeopathic tinctures [14]. The medicines can only be sold in pharmacies but do not require a prescription, and the company says they are available in pharmacies and drugstores. In Germany the range also includes food supplements that are sold only there. The heart of the production method is the Ceres mortar mill, which the company developed itself. It describes the machine as a closed system that grinds plants in a gentle, rhythmic way, imitating traditional grinding by hand with a mortar and pestle. No heat or high pressure is used. The 2011 Tagblatt report followed the process for lavender: immediately after harvest, the blossoms are ground with organically produced alcohol in the mortar mill. The finished tincture is then stored for two years at a constant 16 °C in dark rooms before being bottled in small brown-glass bottles. Hildegard Kalbermatten told the paper that this method produces tinctures with measurably stronger effects, a claim the report did not support with a study [14]. The same article gave a sense of the work behind each harvest. Ceres staff picked lavender by hand on a farm in the Thurgau countryside, and the company needed around 150 kilograms of lavender blossoms that year. Its production manager said the company deliberately sources the plants it processes from the surrounding region, with the rest of that year's lavender expected to come from Piedmont or Provence. The beauty line consists of three creams sold under the name Spezialpflege, meaning special care: Centaurium, Calendula and Viola. Centaurium Spezialpflege is a cream for dry to very dry skin, built on organic jojoba oil and a fresh-plant extract of common centaury, a plant rich in bitter compounds. The company says the plant's bitter compounds can bind to bitter-taste receptors in the skin and stimulate the production of proteins and lipids in the outer skin cells; it cites no study for this mechanism. Calendula Spezialpflege is based on a fresh-plant extract of marigold and is described by the company as soothing for stressed, reddened skin. According to Ceres, both creams are free of fragrance and additives and limited to essential ingredients, and their skin tolerance has been dermatologically confirmed [12]. No third-party certifications for the creams are documented. The organic claim rests on the company's own description, and the Demeter label applies to how some of its plants are grown rather than to the finished products. ## Sustainability Sustainability at Ceres is framed mainly around how plants are gathered. The company says wild harvesting in and around Nax follows strictly sustainable principles: only as much is taken as the natural stands can support over the long term, and protected species are left untouched [5]. Cultivated plants come from organic and biodynamic farming. The supply side also has a social element. The 2011 Tagblatt report described a second lavender growing site at the Ekkarthof, where the blossoms are picked by people with disabilities. In 2014, Hildegard Kalbermatten told the same paper that the company signs no written contracts with its suppliers; a handshake, she said, is enough [15]. ## Press Coverage of Ceres in independent media is limited and largely regional. St. Galler Tagblatt reported on the company in 2011, following a lavender harvest in Thurgau, and again in 2014, when it described a guided visit to the Kesswil site. No awards have been reported. ## Current status Ceres is active. In October 2026 its website listed upcoming academy courses, an open job in Kesswil and recent customer reviews of its creams. The company operates in Switzerland and Germany, with a website available in German, French and English. Christoph Kalbermatten leads the business, and its production remains split between Kesswil and Nax. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1991 | Ceres Heilmittel AG founded in Kesswil by Dr. Roger Kalbermatten and Hildegard Kalbermatten | https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/presse | | 1995 | Ceres mortar process (Ceres-Mörserverfahren), developed by Dr. Roger Kalbermatten, patented | https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/presse | | 2002 | Moved into a purpose-built building on Bachtobelstrasse, Kesswil, housing production, filling, quality control and administration | https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/unternehmen/standort/kesswil | | — | Second production site opened in Nax (Valais, ~1,300 m) for alpine medicinal plants (year not stated) | https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/unternehmen/standort/nax | | — | German subsidiary Ceres Heilmittel GmbH based at Schloss Türnich, Kerpen near Cologne; DE range includes organic cosmetics and Germany-only food supplements (year not stated) | https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/unternehmen/standort/kerpen | | — | Management passed to the second generation, Christoph Kalbermatten (managing director of Ceres Heilmittel AG and Ceres Heilmittel GmbH); year not stated. Hildegard Kalbermatten was still reported as managing director in Sept 2014. | https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/presse | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Centaurium Spezialpflege (50 ml face/skin cream)** — Beruhigt trockene bis sehr trockene Haut — https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/produkte/centaurium-spezialpflege-ch - **Calendula Spezialpflege (50 ml cream)** — Wohltuend für gestresste, gerötete Haut — https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/produkte/calendula-spezialpflege-ch - **Viola Spezialpflege** — Viola Spezialpflege — https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/produkte - **Ceres Taraxacum comp. Leber-Galle Tropfen (herbal medicine, not cosmetic; featured first on the homepage)** — Ceres Taraxacum comp. Leber-Galle Tropfen — https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de - **Ceres Erkältungs-Komplex (herbal medicine, not cosmetic; featured on the homepage)** — Ceres Erkältungs-Komplex — https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Centaurium erythraea (Tausendgüldenkraut / common centaury) fresh-plant extract · Calendula officinalis (marigold) fresh-plant extract · Organic jojoba oil (Simmondsia chinensis seed oil) Source: https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/produkte/centaurium-spezialpflege-ch ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - Ceres-Mörserverfahren (Ceres mortar process) · Ceres-Mörsermühle (Ceres mortar mill) — https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/wissen/4-saeulen-der-qualitaet - Ceres mortar process (Ceres-Mörserverfahren), patented 1995 by Dr. Roger Kalbermatten — https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/presse ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **St. Galler Tagblatt** (2011) — Regional report on Ceres staff hand-harvesting lavender in Thurgau for tinctures; quotes co-founder and co-owner Hildegard Kalbermatten and production head Matthias Plath on the mortar mill and two-year maturation at 16 °C. — https://www.tagblatt.ch/wirtschaft/la-provence-im-thurgau-ld.762421 - **St. Galler Tagblatt** (2014) — Short regional report on a visit to Ceres Heilmittel AG in Kesswil; managing director Hildegard Kalbermatten describes handshake supplier agreements, the patented mortar-principle mill, at least two years of cellar storage, and deliberately throttled growth in Germany to protect quality. — https://www.tagblatt.ch/ostschweiz/arbon-kreuzlingen-weinfelden/heilen-mit-loewenzahn-brennnessel-und-ginkgo-ld.746028 ## Sources 4. (T2) https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/unternehmen/standort/kesswil 5. (T2) https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/unternehmen/standort/nax 6. (T2) https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/unternehmen/standort/kerpen 7. (T2) https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/presse 9. (T2) https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/faq 12. (T2) https://www.ceresheilmittel.ch/de/produkte/centaurium-spezialpflege-ch 14. (T3) https://www.tagblatt.ch/wirtschaft/la-provence-im-thurgau-ld.762421 15. (T3) https://www.tagblatt.ch/ostschweiz/arbon-kreuzlingen-weinfelden/heilen-mit-loewenzahn-brennnessel-und-ginkgo-ld.746028 --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-13 Please cite with a link to the article URL.