Sulgen, the coolest village in Switzerland?
4.6.2026
Translation: Eva Francis
Pictures: Davide Arizzoli
A 150-metre production line, 400 refrigerators a day, 90 people per shift – all in a small village of 4,000 residents in rural Thurgau. Welcome to Sulgen, potentially the coolest place in Switzerland.
The V-Zug fridge factory is located in the industrial area of Sulgen, a village in the north-east of Switzerland. The Swiss company’s been manufacturing refrigerators here since 2022. Not in Romania, Turkey or China, but in Switzerland.
How’s that feasible? I met Chief Operating Officer Adrian Theiler and Factory Manager Christoph Schweiger to find out. We’re in a conference room on the top floor, looking down at the production line in the long hall below. I learn that 400 refrigerators leave this factory every day. V-Zug is market leader for home appliances in Switzerland – a market with a less intense price war than in other countries. How come? Part of the reason is that in Switzerland, people who decide which kitchen appliances to get are usually property management companies, kitchen showroom owners and real estate developers. «What they want is longevity and good service – exactly what we offer,» says Christoph Schweiger.
But the price tag matters, too. Even as a brand in the mid-range and high-end segments, V-Zug can’t afford to be too expensive. Switzerland isn’t a cheap place to produce; salaries are high. Nevertheless, refrigerator manufacturing in Switzerland is a thriving business for V-Zug. Here are four reasons why.
1. Low share of labour costs
The factory in Sulgen is designed for efficiency, with perfectly coordinated processes instead of downtime. «This is how V-Zug manages to keep labour costs for manufacturing a refrigerator at just 10 to 12 per cent,» COO Adrian Theiler explains. That’s only 200 francs for a model that’s sold for just under 2,000 francs.
About 90 people are currently working per shift. Working conditions at what’s known as the Zero-Gravity factory are designed to be as good as possible. No one has to lift heavy or bulky parts, as hydraulic tables and lifting robots do it for them. This is just one example I was able to see for myself.
400 refrigerators are made every day, totalling over 100,000 per year. That sounds impressive, but isn’t when you compare it to international competitors. Brands such as Liebherr and the Bosch-Siemens Group have factories that produce half a million units per year – that’s five times more than V-Zug.
2. High shipping costs
Nevertheless, manufacturing abroad is out of the question for the company leaders. «We didn’t spend 70 million francs to build the Sulgen factory site from scratch for no reason. We rely on our skilled workers and they’re all here,» says Christoph Schweiger. Most of them moved from the former factory location in Arbon to Sulgen in 2022. The two villages are only a kilometres apart.
Christoph Schweiger adds that producing abroad wouldn’t pay off for another reason: shipping costs. It’s not worth shipping a refrigerator across the oceans on a cargo ship just because manufacturing costs are lower in Asia. A packed-up fridge is about 1.80 metres tall and 60 centimetres wide. A shipping container can’t hold that many units at once, so it would soon be expensive to do, especially when crises and wars are disrupting trade routes and making prices rise. A standard shipping container on the Shanghai–Rotterdam route currently costs around USD 2,500 (page in German). With 50 refrigerators per container, that comes to over USD 50 per unit. And that doesn’t even include the onward transport from the North Sea to Switzerland by rail and truck.
3. Local procurement partners
Many parts for V-Zug refrigerator come from nearby suppliers in Switzerland or Germany, as Adrian Theiler explains. Some of these parts are bulky, such as the condensation grilles on the back or the drawers, so once again, shipping from far away would be too expensive. Another reason why V-Zug buys from local procurement partners is the great working relationship and the flexibility this provides.
And finally, prices are pretty much the same all over the world. Since two thirds of production costs are for materials, V-Zug isn’t at a disadvantage compared to its competitors in this respect.
4. On-site research
For V-Zug, manufacturing abroad would mean long distances between product development and research in Switzerland and production at another location. After all, the factory in Sulgen isn’t only where the final products are assembled, but also where the V-Zug research team’s working on the next generation of refrigerators. I get to see one of those next-gen fridges during the tour of the factory, but have to keep it a secret. To be honest, this isn’t a problem, as I’m such a noob, I wouldn’t have recognised what’s new and revolutionary anyway. V-Zug handpick participants in focus groups to test their prototypes.
Built to last
A refrigerator is a product with a long lifespan. V-Zug models are designed for this purpose. According to Adrian Theiler, it’s common for V-Zug fridges to last for 20 or 30 years. The manufacturer guarantees that replacement parts will be available for 15 years after the last model in a refrigerator generation has been sold. «In seven out of ten cases, we’ll be able to repair a 30-year-old appliance,» the COO says proudly.
He does admit, however, that this doesn’t always make sense from an energy perspective, as newer refrigerator models use less electricity than older ones. A modern, energy-efficient model consumes just 50 kilowatt-hours per year, while an older, less efficient model may use three times as much. That will show in the electricity bill.
Eye for detail
Product development for refrigerators often involves working on a high level of detail. How can to make the door’s rubber seal be made even more effective? How to position the lighting to cast fewer shadows? How to make the fridge keep a lettuce fresh for longer? How to design the drawer to move more smoothly? To answer these kinds of questions, V-Zug has installed test tracks and climate-controlled rooms in Sulgen that simulate conditions similar to a warm summer day. This allows researchers to determine how much warm air flows into the refrigerator when the door’s opened.
Fridges don’t only have to work, they also have to look good. At the moment, shelves and plastic surfaces with a matte finish are more fashionable than clear glass.
What V-Zug isn’t working on, for now, is a smart refrigerator that knows what you need to buy next. Or one that uses AI to suggest what you could cook with the food that’s about to reach its best-by date. There are a few smart models that have built-in cameras, but they can’t automatically take inventory of the contents of the refrigerator. Other manufacturers such as LG have equipped their food centres with a glass window. When you tap it, the light switches on inside. But you can only take things out if you open the door. Not that smart either.
V-Zug focuses on other things. Maybe people really don’t care that much about having an AI fridge – and needing to install yet another app to use it. That said, newer V-Zug refrigerators can be connected to the internet for maintenance purposes. This allows a service technician to check which replacement parts to bring in the event of a problem.
One major idea is to turn the site in Sulgen into a circular factory, which would mean recycling as many unused parts and leftover raw materials from refrigerators as possible. To do this, it’s important that plastic can be separated properly and turned into granules. When it comes to insulation foam, this is currently difficult, as it’s firmly stuck to the casing. So far, the necessity to disassemble refrigerators wasn’t considered in product design. «We have a lot of ideas, and some of them are already at the concept stage,» says COO Adrian Theiler. However, true sustainability concepts must also make sense from an economic perspective.
A refrigerator that can be almost completely recycled at the end of its life? That would truly earn Sulgen the title of Switzerland’s coolest village in my opinion.
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
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