Stories from Planzer Parcel

A business of her own – that was her dream. But life had other plans for Regula. She fell in love with Hanspeter, a farmer from two villages down the road. When his father died young, Hanspeter, fresh out of agricultural college, took over the running of the family farm with its combination of agriculture, pastureland and cattle breeding. He and Regula soon married, and Regula eagerly set about helping out. As a trained home economics teacher, she knew exactly what needed to be done on the farm, in the home and in the garden. The Nussbaumer family grew and Regula took to caring for the family of five as naturally as she did to pumping out the slurry spreader, raking the cut hay or digging the fields. Although the three children loved the farm, none was keen to follow in their parents’ footsteps. The elder son studied medicine and is now an anaesthetist, the younger son works as an IT specialist in a software development firm, and the daughter is training as a physiotherapist. In the blink of an eye, they had all flown the nest. Regula and Hanspeter were left with a lot of work to do. They took on an extra pair of hands to help out on the farm and give them time to step back and think.

Regula used this time to resuscitate her dream of her own start-up. She expanded the vegetable beds and planted a large herb garden. Alongside the usual suspects such as thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage, mint and basil, she added lesser-known ones: marigold, soapwort, lemon balm, coriander, verbena, borage, field pansy, anise, St John’s wort, savory, bee balm, horehound, chicory, blessed thistle, hyssop, chamomile, nigella, ribwort plantain and coltsfoot.

Regula set to work on a range of items, using skills she had acquired during her training or learned from her mother. But it didn’t stop there. She tried out recipes she had come across on a class trip to the herb garden of the old monastery in Toggenburg. And she devoured every recipe book that celebrated forgotten concoctions, resulting in herbal teas, herbal ointments, herbal mustards, herbal salts, herbal shampoos, herbal liqueurs, herbal pillows, herbal oils, herbal this and herbal that.

Initially, Regula supplied her family and friends, neighbours and visitors with her creations. But they were soon well stocked up. So she set up a little stall with an honesty box by the side of the village road. Takings were modest, largely because the road leads from nowhere to nowhere.

Regula spent a large part of her time putting together orders, packing them and driving the parcels to the nearest post office before it shut. Realising there was room for improvement here, she did some research. After coming across Planzer Parcel, she got in touch with us. We put together an offer for the weekly collection of the goods, storage, order picking and shipping, with an intelligent interface between her herb shop and our entire logistics system. Regula accepted at once – this comprehensive package was the perfect fit.

Regula benefits in numerous ways from our comprehensive package. She can now devote time to dreaming up and producing new herbal creations or spend more of it with Hanspeter, instead of having to take care of packing and despatching the orders herself. Our Plug & Planzer Parcel plugin is quick and easy to install and integrates seamlessly with WordPress and other standard CMS platforms, such as WooCommerce and Shopify. Since many manual steps are no longer necessary, consignments are no longer prone to errors; for example, with the correct spelling of delivery and billing addresses. The environment is happy too, because 60% of all consignments make most of their journey in Switzerland by eco-friendly rail. And at the end of the day, Regula knows that our drivers will handle and deliver her herbal parcels just as she would herself: with a friendly word.

You may have difficulties finding Regula’s herb shop online. Not because it is not search engine-optimised – but because it does not actually exist. Nor, sadly, does Regula herself. But one thing does exist – a wealth of good business ideas crying out for an online shop and a Switzerland-based parcel logistics partner. And there are thousands of customers who are interested in sustainability. Who knows, maybe you have long shared Regula’s dream. In which case, you can count on our 100% commitment to help make it a reality.