RIVIERA

RIVIERA is an Austrian family-owned manufacturer of herbal remedies, body-care products and natural cosmetics, founded in Vienna in 1923 by Robert Schrenk and based today in Tulln an der Donau in Lower Austria [2]. The company, which trades as RIVIERA Pharma & Cosmetics GmbH, makes traditional herbal medicines, medical devices, food supplements and what it calls phytocosmetics, meaning cosmetics built around plant extracts. It also produces goods for other companies under contract.

The company counts two long-running products among its most successful [1]: Holzhacker Franzbranntwein, a cooling body rub launched in 1954, and Original Schwedenbitter, a herbal bitters sold as a registered medicinal product. In 2023 the company marked its centenary, still in the hands of the founding family and led by its third generation [10].

Robert Schrenk registered the business in Vienna under a long descriptive name, "Riviera Robert Schrenk Erzeugung chemischer kosmetischer Produkte", roughly "Riviera Robert Schrenk, manufacture of chemical cosmetic products". The Vienna premises served as its first production site.

The early range had little in common with what the company is known for now. According to a 2023 profile by the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO Niederösterreich), the business began with hairdressing supplies, perfumes and lipsticks, and only later added the Franzbranntwein rub and the Schwedenbitter that came to define it [10]. Both the company and the chamber date the founding to 1923 and name Schrenk as founder.

The turning point came in 1954, when RIVIERA created Holzhacker Franzbranntwein and protected the name and logo as a combined word-and-figure trademark. The company describes Holzhacker (German for "lumberjack") as a house remedy made to an old recipe, applied to the skin for a cooling, refreshing effect, and still dates the brand to that year.

The business stayed within the family through two handovers. Schrenk's son-in-law, Wolfgang Wächter, joined in 1956, and in 1973 Schrenk passed RIVIERA to his daughter, Maria Wächter. Harald Wächter, who would later lead the company, entered it in 1992 after completing a degree in pharmacy.

Over the same decades the company built up its herbal medicine business. RIVIERA registered "Original Schwedenbitter" as a trademark in 1981, and in 1998 Original Schwedenbitter Riviera was registered as a medicinal product [2]. On its product pages the company places the remedy in a much older tradition. It describes medieval use of herbs to aid digestion and early formulations attributed to Paracelsus in Salzburg in the 16th century. It also cites a "Elexir amarum Hjaerneri" created by Dr. Urban Hjärne in 1692 and a widely read 1980 book by Maria Treben. These are the company's account of the remedy's heritage, not the history of RIVIERA itself, which begins in 1923.

The next major step was physical. The company moved production out of Vienna to a purpose-built site in Tulln, where it also obtained GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification, a quality standard for the manufacture of medicines. The company's own website gives two dates for this move. Its history timeline records the construction of the Tulln site and GMP certification in 2006, while its company description states that RIVIERA has been located in Tulln since 2007 [2]. The two statements are consistent with the site being built in 2006 and the company relocating in 2007.

Later milestones include the award of the Austrian state coat of arms in 2010, ISO 9001 certification for quality management in 2018, and the development of the RIVIERA MED+ medical-device series in 2019. According to the chamber of commerce, a photovoltaic system installed in 2021 covers half of the company's energy needs. RIVIERA celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023 under the motto "100 years of tradition, quality, production and innovation".

RIVIERA has never been sold to an outside owner. In 2014 Harald Wächter took over 100 per cent of the shares in all affiliated companies, consolidating ownership of the group in one family member's hands [2]. This was an internal transfer rather than an acquisition by a third party.

The chamber of commerce describes Wächter as running the business in its third generation and notes that his sons represent the next one. Markus Wächter is a biotechnologist and Christian Wächter a lawyer. No parent company or sister brands outside the family group are documented.

RIVIERA frames its identity around three mottos that appear on its website and were quoted by Harald Wächter in the 2023 chamber profile: "Tradition that obliges. Quality that impresses. Production that convinces." The company says its guiding principle, "then as now", is to manufacture to a high quality standard, which it attributes to product research and constant quality controls.

The firm describes itself as known across Europe for traditional herbal medicines, medical devices, food supplements and phytocosmetics. That claim comes from RIVIERA itself. The chamber of commerce gives a more concrete picture of its reach [10]. As of 2023, the company exported mainly to Germany, to countries in Central and Southern Europe, to Cyprus and to Turkey, with Scandinavia and Brazil described as markets under development. It supplies pharmacies, drugstores and retail chains, and sells directly to consumers through its own webshop.

Its product descriptions refer repeatedly to natural plant extracts and old recipes, and many items are named after alpine plants and traditional ingredients such as arnica, mountain pine, Swiss stone pine (Zirbe), calendula and St John's wort.

All production is concentrated in Tulln. According to the company, the site handles research and development as well as the extraction of herbs and medicinal plant material, which is processed into liquid medicines and ointments. Production, filling, raw-material storage and washrooms sit inside a cleanroom complex designed to GMP requirements, and microbiological quality control is carried out in an in-house laboratory.

The 2023 chamber profile adds detail on the people involved. It reports that the laboratory employs six biotechnologists and that production manager Andreas Posch had by then held his post for 36 years. It also describes automated processing and filling lines.

Besides its own brands, RIVIERA offers contract and private-label manufacturing [7]. The company says it develops and produces medicines, medical devices, food supplements, cosmetics and chemical products for partners in semi-solid and liquid forms, including creams, gels, ointments, tinctures and solutions. It also offers organic production under EU organic rules.

The Holzhacker range is RIVIERA's main body-care line. Alongside the original Franzbranntwein, it includes an Arnica & Menthol version, a mountain-pine version, muscle gels, a refreshing spray, refreshing wipes, a body lotion called Franziska, a Swiss stone pine muscle tonic and an organic Holzhacker BIO Franzbranntwein. The company lists arnica, menthol, camphor, mountain-pine oil and Swiss stone pine oil among the active ingredients [3]. It promotes the products as cooling, refreshing and invigorating, especially after physical activity.

A separate creams and ointments range covers more than 20 items. Among them are a calendula SOS ointment, a marmot-oil ointment, an arnica hand cream, an aloe vera cream, a deer-tallow foot cream, propolis and bee-venom ointments, a lip balm and a Swedish-herb ointment. Wellness products such as sauna infusion oils, massage oil, a foot bath and a hair emulsion complete the body-care side of the catalogue. The chamber of commerce put the total range at about 70 products in 2023 [10].

Original Schwedenbitter Riviera is the company's main medicinal product. RIVIERA describes it as a traditional herbal medicine made from extracts of 13 herbs, used for mild digestive complaints such as bloating and loss of appetite, and says it has been on the market for 30 years. A related Original Schwedenkräuter Elixier is sold as a food supplement.

The newest line, RIVIERA MED+, consists of medical devices for muscles and joints: hot and cool roll-ons, gels and a spray intended for tension, bruises, strains and sore muscles [6]. The company has also added a cooling body spray called A/C2GO, along with animal-care products and gift sets.

On certification, RIVIERA states that its organic-labelled products are certified by Austria Bio Garantie [2]. This applies to products sold as organic, such as Holzhacker BIO Franzbranntwein, not to the full range. GMP and ISO 9001 are company-level manufacturing and quality-management certifications rather than cosmetic labels.

The company reports that its electricity supplier, EVN, guarantees the site is supplied with power from 100 per cent renewable sources, with no carbon dioxide emitted in generating it. The photovoltaic system installed in 2021 adds on-site generation covering roughly half of the company's energy demand.

In 2010 RIVIERA was granted the right to carry the Austrian state coat of arms (Staatswappen der Republik Österreich), a distinction conferred by the Republic of Austria [2]. The Holzhacker display, a cardboard stand used in shops, won the Wellpappe Award Austria in 2017 for corrugated-board displays and the Worldstar Packaging Award in 2018. The company notes that the Holzhacker brand has been recognised several times for its packaging design.

RIVIERA is active. Its website was updated in July 2026 and links to a working online shop [9]. The business remains in family ownership and continues to manufacture its herbal medicines, medical devices and body-care products at its site in Tulln an der Donau.