# Unterweger ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1886 | | Origin | Austria | | Headquarters | Thal/Assling (East Tyrol), Austria | | Status | Active | | Previous names | Waldmännlein (cosmetics brand name from the 1970s; the cosmetics have been sold as 'Unterweger' since the 1990s brand change) | | Manufacturing | Thal/Assling, East Tyrol, Austria (company site with own distillery and cosmetics production), Moldova (two production sites since 2011: cultivation and field distillation of essential oils) | | Website | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/ | Unterweger is an Austrian brand of body care, bath products, essential oils and home fragrances from Thal/Assling in East Tyrol. It belongs to Brüder Unterweger, a family company that dates its founding to 1886, when the brothers Johann and Ignaz Unterweger opened a distillery for mountain-pine oil in the village [3]. Oil came first. Cosmetics were added in the 1930s, and the care products have been sold under the Unterweger name since a brand change in the 1990s. The name does two jobs. It stands for the company as a whole, which still distils and trades essential oils on an international scale, and it labels one of three product brands, alongside Vitalpinum and Pinamor. The business is run by the fourth generation of the family and remains active, with an online shop, a shop at its home site and a visitor garden built around the history of oil distilling. ## Origin & founders The company grew out of a single raw material: the mountain pine, called Latsche in German. In 1886 Johann and Ignaz Unterweger founded what they called the Erste Tiroler Latschenöl Brennerei, the "First Tyrolean Mountain-Pine Oil Distillery", in Thal/Assling, close to where the company is still based. A Tyrolean business directory likewise describes the firm as producing and trading essential oils from its Thal/Assling seat since 1886. The company's philosophy page opens with a line attributed to the two brothers: "In our veins flows the purest essential oil!" The company presents it as something the founders are said to have remarked, rather than as a documented statement. According to the company, the distillery made its name from the start through the manufacture and sale of essential oils on the world market. ## History & milestones ### A distillery that travelled Within a few years the brothers were showing their oils abroad. The brand's own timeline says they presented their conifer oils at the world exhibition in Barcelona in 1889, and again in Chicago in 1893 [3]. The company's separate essential-oils website tells the story slightly differently: it dates the world-exhibition milestone to 1888 and names the Exposition Universelle Internationale as the showcase [9]. The two company pages therefore disagree by one year and on which exhibition is meant. This article follows the 1889 date given on the brand site. The same oils website traces a period of rapid expansion. Two distilleries began operating on a mountain pasture near Lienz in 1892. A distillery in Dolenja Vas followed in 1893, in a location the company describes as former Yugoslavia, now Croatia. In 1899 the family opened a distillery in Val Popena, near the Tre Cime di Lavaredo peaks in Italy, and in 1912 another in Kiens, in South Tyrol. Before the First World War, the East Tyrolean company was thus distilling in Austria, Italy and the Balkans. ### From oils to cosmetics The second branch of the business appeared in the 1930s. The company describes cosmetics as its "second pillar", developed from its pure essential oils and the particular properties of individual alpine plants [2]. Over the following decades this grew into care lines covering the whole body. After the Second World War, in 1948 Franz and Ignaz Unterweger, whom the company counts as the third "distilling generation", joined the firm and took on the task of rebuilding it. A new main company building went up in 1962. The first care series based on genuine mountain-pine oil arrived in the 1970s, sold under the name Waldmännlein, literally "little forest man". From the 1990s the company changed brands, and its cosmetics have since been sold as Unterweger [3]. The company's timeline presents the two steps one after the other; it does not say in so many words that Waldmännlein was renamed, but the Unterweger name has covered the cosmetics ever since. Over the years the range expanded into care series for the skin, muscles and joints. ### A garden, Moldova and a new still In 2010 the company opened the Vitalpinum garden, a combined relaxation and visitor garden on its grounds in Thal/Assling. The brand site places the opening in 2010, while the essential-oils site repeats the same "Opening of the Vitalpinum" entry under 2010, 2019 and 2021 [9]; the brand site's single date is the one used here. In 2011 the company added two production sites in Moldova. According to the company, these are used mainly to obtain essential oils from plants such as dill, sage, clary sage, oregano and fennel. The herbs are grown there and distilled close to the fields, after which the oil travels to the Alps. At its site in Thal, the company says, each batch is analysed before being shipped on. A further return to the company's roots came in 2021. According to the brand's timeline, a company-owned distillery was built on the Thal/Assling grounds again "after more than 136 years" of history. The company notes that the project was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund [7]. In 2022 the timeline presents the present line-up of three brands, Unterweger, Vitalpinum and Pinamor, as standing for the company's commitment to quality. ## Ownership Unterweger is owned and operated by the family. The company behind the brand is Brüder Unterweger Gesellschaft m.b.H., which the website's legal notice names as its operator [5]. The philosophy page states that the business is now in its fourth generation, led by the managing directors Stefan and Michael Unterweger [2]. The company's essential-oils website names the same two men as its management. The Tyrolean business directory top.tirol gives the registered purpose of the firm as the manufacture and wholesale of essential oils and of cosmetic and pharmaceutical articles, including Franzbranntwein, a traditional alcohol-based rub. The same directory reports net revenue of about 33.5 million euros and 70 employees for 2025, based on published accounts and the company's own information, and notes that the figures come without guarantee [10]. These numbers cover the whole company, including its large essential-oils business, not the cosmetics alone. No outside owner or parent group is documented, and no acquisitions by or of the company are recorded. The three brands are internal product lines of the same family firm rather than separate companies. ## Philosophy & positioning Brüder Unterweger describes itself as a company for which nature runs through the whole production process, from the choice of raw materials to the finished product and its link with the plants in the Vitalpinum garden. Its stated main concern is the purity of all ingredients, which it says are selected with great care. The company adds that it tries to preserve the effects of alpine medicinal plants and pass them on through its products. The mission is framed in simple terms. The company says it wants its products to bring the power of nature into people's everyday lives. It also lists transparency and an open exchange with customers among its values. On its sustainability page the Unterweger brand carries the tagline "Die Marke der Natur", or "the brand of nature". The company draws a clear line between its two cosmetics brands. Vitalpinum is its certified organic and natural cosmetics brand, with products checked and certified by external bodies. The Unterweger brand, by contrast, covers products that are also based on natural raw materials but are, in the company's words, oriented to the standards of natural cosmetics rather than certified to them [1]. No third-party natural-cosmetics certification is documented for the Unterweger line itself. The company's essential-oils business lists certificates including ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and HACCP, together with a greenhouse-gas balance and an EcoVadis score, but these relate to the company rather than to specific cosmetic products. The Unterweger name also serves as the umbrella for the company's non-cosmetic lines. According to the website, the brand covers sauna oils, essential oils and room fragrances as well as skin care. ## Products & innovation The company's online shop groups the Unterweger range into fragrances (essential oils, sauna oils, room fragrances, a perfume called Anna and a pillow spray), bath products (bubble baths, shower gels, bath oils, shampoos and soaps), creams and body lotions, body oils, facial care (toners, cleansers and face creams), and a category of rubs and gels. That last group reflects the company's long focus on care for muscles and joints alongside the skin. The shop also sells sweets and gift sets. Many products are organised around a single plant. A seasonal selection on the homepage in September 2026 included lavender liquid soap, shower gel and face cream; calendula shower gel, rub, body lotion and face cream; a chestnut gel; and sauna oils scented with lemon balm, thyme and lemon, and autumn leaves. The plants behind those lines are partly grown by the company itself. Brüder Unterweger says it cultivates calendula and St John's wort on its own fields in Assling, and grows other medicinal and aromatic plants such as arnica and thyme. Lavender is cultivated in cooperation with LLA Lienz, an agricultural school in the region. The Vitalpinum garden also includes a field of medicinal herbs with arnica, calendula, thyme and lavender. Essential oils remain the core of the business. The company describes a production chain that starts with cultivation and a first distillation in Moldova, continues with quality checks in Austria, and ends with a second distillation and rectification, a final re-distillation that removes remaining impurities, at its Austrian plant. According to the oils website, Brüder Unterweger today supplies essential oils to 38 countries, with 95 per cent of production exported and the United States one of its main markets alongside Western Europe [9]. For trade customers, the brand site also offers a dealer portal and contract filling. ## Sustainability The company presents sustainability mainly through packaging and energy. It says all of its 250 ml products, such as rubs, shower gels and body lotions, are sold in bottles made from 100 per cent recycled plastic [4]. Its stated goal is to use only recycled-plastic packaging for its liquid cosmetics in the near term, or, ideally, to switch to an ecological alternative. On energy, the company says the steam for its distillery is produced solely from biomass and that photovoltaic panels cover its roofs, allowing it to operate without fossil fuels. It also states that the majority of its care products meet the vegan standard. For some products, it adds, it chooses not to do without animal-derived ingredients because of their caring properties, so not every item in the range is vegan. ## Current status Unterweger is an active brand. In September 2026 its website was running an autumn campaign under the heading "Willkommen im Herbst" ("Welcome to autumn") with a working online shop. The company's cosmetics are sold mainly through that shop and through the Vitalpinum shop at its site in Thal/Assling, which is open all year. The website also lists sales partners. The Vitalpinum garden remains the public face of the company. The regional tourism portal tirol.tl describes it as a garden on the grounds of the original distillery, with a circular path of sensory stations, a Swiss stone pine resting area with loungers and a waterfall, the herb field, a faithful replica of a show distillery that demonstrates how mountain-pine oil is made, a shop and a playground. The portal gives its size as 6,500 square metres [11], while the company's oils website speaks of 5,000 square metres. Groups can visit on guided tours. In 2026 the company reached its 140th year since the founding of the distillery. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1886 | Brothers Johann and Ignaz Unterweger found the Erste Tiroler Latschenöl Brennerei (first Tyrolean mountain-pine oil distillery) in Thal/Assling, East Tyrol. | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/ | | 1889 | The brothers present their conifer oils at the world exhibition in Barcelona (and in 1893 in Chicago), per the brand site's timeline (the oils site dates the world-exhibition milestone 1888). | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/ | | 1892 | Two distilleries begin operating on a mountain pasture near Lienz. | https://unterweger-oils.com/en/about-us | | 1893 | Distillery opened in Dolenja Vas (page: 'former Yugoslavia (now Croatia)'). | https://unterweger-oils.com/en/about-us | | 1899 | Distillery opened in Val Popena near the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Italy. | https://unterweger-oils.com/en/about-us | | 1912 | Distillery opened in Kiens, South Tyrol (Italy). | https://unterweger-oils.com/en/about-us | | 1930 | 1930s: cosmetics production begins as the company's second pillar. | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/philosophie/ | | 1948 | Franz and Ignaz Unterweger (3rd 'distilling generation') join and rebuild the company after World War II. | https://unterweger-oils.com/en/about-us | | 1962 | New main company building erected. | https://unterweger-oils.com/en/about-us | | 1970 | 1970s: first care series based on real mountain-pine oil launched under the brand name Waldmännlein. | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/ | | 1990 | From the 1990s: brand change; cosmetics sold under the name 'Unterweger'. | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/ | | 2010 | Wohlfühl- und Erlebnisgarten Vitalpinum (garden with show distillery and shop) opens at the Thal/Assling site. | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/ | | 2011 | Two further production sites in Moldova (essential oils from dill, sage, clary sage, oregano, fennel). | https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/ | | 2014 | Brüder Unterweger Gesellschaft m.b.H. takes over the business activities from Brüder Unterweger 1886 GmbH (FN 51361 g) as of 30.06.2014 (tier-4 business directory). | https://www.top.tirol/unternehmen/osttirol/brueder-unterweger-gesellschaft-m-b-h | ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Ringelblume (calendula) · Johanniskraut (St John's wort) · Arnika (arnica) · Thymian (thyme) · Lavendel (lavender) Source: https://www.unterweger-natur.com/blog-detail/ringelblume-und-johanniskraut-pflanzenkraft-aus-eigenem-anbau/ ## Sources 1. (T1) https://www.unterweger-natur.com/ 2. (T1) https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/philosophie/ 3. (T2) https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/ 4. (T2) https://www.unterweger-natur.com/unternehmen/nachhaltigkeit/ 5. (T2) https://www.unterweger-natur.com/informationen/impressum/ 7. (T2) https://www.unterweger-natur.com/de/blog-detail/neue-brennerei-am-firmenstandort-in-thal-assling/ 9. (T2) https://unterweger-oils.com/en/about-us 10. (T4) https://www.top.tirol/unternehmen/osttirol/brueder-unterweger-gesellschaft-m-b-h 11. (T4) https://www.tirol.tl/de/highlights/sehenswuerdigkeiten/schaubrennerei-wohlfuehlgarten-vitalpinum/ --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-09-30 Please cite with a link to the article URL.