Swiss Commercial Flags

Last modified: 2023-12-09 by martin karner
Keywords: switzerland | commercial flags |
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• Breitling
• Horwath International
• Midland
• Nestlé
• Rolex
• SATOM
• Swissair
• Switzerland Airport Authority
• Syngenta

• Swiss Maritime Companies Flags
• International Commercial Organizations
• Switzerland

Breitling

Flag of watchmaker company Breitling SA, offered on an auction platform. The flag shows the logo on white, the yellow letter B above the name BREITLING in capitals and the year of foundation 1884, both in black and in two lines.

The company was founded by Léon Breitling (1860–1914) in Saint-Imier (Bern), 1892 it moved to La-Chaux-de-Fonds (Neuchâtel). 1915, after his son Gaston had overtaken the company the year before, Breitling introduced its first watch with a chronograph. Chronographic watches should become a focus of the company. From 1936 on Breitling supplied the Royal Air Force (RAF) with board watches and wrist watches for the pilots with luminous dials. In 1942 the model Chronomat was developed, a chronograph with integrated slide rule, which was introduced into the US Army Air Forces (USAAF). In 1952 followed the Navitimer, which also had a so-called bezel which allowed calculations of fuel consumption, rates of climbing and descent flight, average speed and more. In 1958 Breitling's first diving watch was introduced, the Superocean.
In 1979 Willy Breitling sold his rights to Ernest Schneider, who moved the construction offices to Grenchen (Solothurn), now named Breitling Montres SA. In 1984 the company introduced the new version of the Chronomat model, which was developed together with the Italian aerobatic team Frecce Tricolori. It's still the company's main product. The pilot watch Emergency from 1995 had an integrated emergency beacon. Since 2002 the mechanical watches are again produced in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, in the same year a new diving watch was introduced for dephts until 3000 meters.
In 2017 the then British financial investor CVC Capital Partners bought 80 percent of Breitling's share capital, a year later it bought also the remaining 20 percent. In 2021 the investor Partners Group from Zug, Switzerland bought 20 percent, and in December 2022 became majority shareholder.
Martin Karner, 8 December 2023

Horwath International

Horwath International, a Swiss Verein-structured business, comprising professional services in Insurance, Business Services, Consulting, Corporate Finance, Risk Consulting, Tax and Technology.
Image based on: http://www.minhacienda.gov.co/MinHacienda (Colombian Ministry of Finance, March 2009)
For more information please see: Horwath International (official website) http://www.horwath.com/
Esteban Rivera, 21 March 2009

Midland

Flag of Midland oil company, offered on an auction platform. The flag shows the company logo on white background, flag ratio 5:3. The logo shows three triangles above the company name and the slogan "Swiss Quality Oil.". The name and the design of the logo have to do with the geographical location of the company. It's situated in Switzerland's Central Plateau, also known under its German name "Mittelland" (thus the English translated "Midland" brand). In the imagination of many people who don't know Switzerland, the country only consists of the Alpine region (promoted by travel literature of earlier times, the "Heidi" novel and modern tourism advertising). The Mittelland, which contains the biggest parts of the population and economic activities, is located between the low Jura mountains in the West and Northwest, and the Alps in the South. The inverted middle triangle on the logo represents the Mittelland between the Alps and the Jura mountains.

The company was founded in 1880 under the name "J. Brack" by Jakob Brack, who imported and sold mineral lubricants from Romania. Later they became the official sales partner of American oil products from companies like Perfectol, Quaker State and Kendall Motor Oil. In 2004, when Shell acquired Quaker State, the company's name was changed from Oel-Brack AG (since 1938) to Midland, a name which should sound American, reflecting both the traditional partnerships with US companies and the Swiss origins.

Martin Karner, 7 December 2023

Nestlé

The flag is the bird nest logo in white on a blue background with the words "Nestlé" in white, and on the left the bird nest is displayed in blue outline on a white background. These two graphical depictions occupy 50% each of space on the flag.

Nestlé S.A. is a multinational packaged food company founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company for milk products established in 1866 by the Page Brothers in Cham, Switzerland, and the Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé Company set up in 1866 by Henri Nestlé to provide an infant food product. The two world wars both affected growth: during the first, dried milk was widely used but the second war caused profits to drop by around 70%. However, sales of the instant coffee Nescafé were boosted by the US military. After the wars, growth was stimulated by acquisitions expanding its range and taking control of several well known brands, so they now include Maggi, Thomy and Nescafé, that are known globally. It is the world's largest food company, with Kraft Foods being second.
Esteban Rivera, 16 September 2009

Rolex

Rolex SA is a luxury watchmaker founded in London in 1905 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, since 1919. The company does business worldwide and is one of the most recognizable luxury brands in the world. (http://www.rolex.com/)

The Rolex corporate flag can be seen in photographs online, particularly https://motorsport.com/all/photo/main-gallery/flags-11751839/?a=870774, at the Rolex-sponsored 24-hour auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, in January 2017. The flag features the Rolex corporate logo in gold on a green field. The logo shows a crown above the word "ROLEX" in capital letters.
Randy Young, 20 February 2017

Satom

SATOM SA, a company established in 1972 and active since 1976, is involved in waste recycling. Its main shareholders are 40 municipalities in the canton of Vaud and another 34 in the canton of Valais, and the two cantons of Vaud and Valais.
SATOM operates two sites, a thermic waste recycling plant in Monthey (Valais) and a methanization unit for green waste in Villeneuve (Vaud), acquired in 2007 and modernized in 2012. SATOM also manages the regional waste site of Collombey-Muraz and the inter-municipal waste site of Corsier-sur-Vevey, and, only for the administrative part, the municipal waste sites of Collonges, Evionnaz, Liddes, Martigny-Combre, OrsiËres, Port-Valais, Saillon, and Vouvry. (https://satomsa.ch)
For its first 40 years of operation, the Monthey unit has processed 4.4 million ton waste. Now the biggest producer of thermic electricity in Switzerland – and also the cheapest incineration plant, it processes waste generated by some 300 000 people (180 000 ton per year) and supplies electricity to the equivalent of 40 000 households (Source: 24heures.ch, 1 April 2016).

The flag of SATOM, as hoisted in front of the Villeneuve plant between the flags of Vaud and Valais, and in front of the Monthey plant between the flags of Valais and Vaud, is made of the graphic element of the company's logo. Beyond reasonable doubt, the green and red parts represent Vaud and Valais, respectively (Photo Villeneuve, Photo Monthey).
Ivan Sache, 28 August 2019

Swissair

The historic airline flag of Swissair (in use late 1930s – late 1940s).
Miles Li, 23 March 2015

[Variant with lettering (probably 1940s), source]

Swissport

flag proportion 1:1
field : white
logo : SWISSPORT in black letters and red parallelogram with flying airplanes over the Earth
Nozomi Kariyasu, 23 October 2007

Syngenta AG is a large Swiss agribusiness. Its flag is simply its name in blue on a white field, with a green leaf over the letters "ge".
Eugene Ipavec, 22 May 2006