Wheaty：成功创意的故事

原文：https://www.wheaty.com/about/history/

注：译文谨供参考。

Wheaty: the story of a successful idea

Wheaty：成功创意的故事

TOPAS, the company behind Wheaty, is a family business still run by its founder Klaus Gaiser. What started as a tiny operation in the family home today is one of the most successful vegan and organic brands in Europe.

Wheaty产品背后的公司名为Topas，现在仍是由其创始人克劳斯·盖泽尔（Klaus Gaiser）经营的家族企业。公司从家庭小作坊起步，如今已跻身于欧洲最成功的纯素和有机品牌。

Pioneering Tofu in Germany

开创德国豆腐先河

When the eventual founder of TOPAS, Klaus Gaiser, returned from two study trips abroad in the mid-seventies, he brought with him what would turn out to be knowledge essential to his future career. During his stays in Japan, China and Indonesia, he immersed himself in the culture of East Asia. A particular focus of his was food manufacturing. In Japan, he had the opportunity to get deep insights in the traditional cuisine: he got to spent time in a Sake brewery, a kitchen in a Zen temple, and other places. In Kamakura, he had the chance to learn from an old Tofu master.

上世纪七十年代中期，克劳斯·盖泽尔，即后来的Topas公司创始人，在结束了两次海外研究旅行后返回德国，同时也带回来了终将影响自己未来职业生涯的重要知识。在逗留日本、中国和印尼期间，他完全沉浸于东亚文化。他特别关注的是食品制造方面。在日本期间，他有机会深入了解传统烹饪方法：他拜访过日本清酒酿造厂、禅寺厨房等地方。在日本镰仓，他有幸向一名年长的豆腐大师讨教学习。

A student of sinology (Chinese and China studies), japanology and cultural studies, Gaiser returned to Germany in 1978. He now had not only his lifelong fascination with Asian culture and cuisine, but was now also equipped with the technical skills to make the continent’s food. He started manufacturing Tofu, at first on a small scale for private consumption and for his Asian friends. Only a few months after his return from Asia, he held his first hand-made block of Tofu in his hand.

作为一名汉学（中文和中国研究）、日本学和文化研究方面的学生，盖泽尔学有所成于1978年回到德国。从此，他不仅终生迷恋于亚洲文化和烹饪，而且也掌握了制作亚洲大陆食品的技艺。他开始着手制造豆腐，首先是小规模制作豆腐，供他的亚洲朋友和私人享用。从亚洲归来才没几个月，第一块手工制作豆腐就诞生在他手上。

Before long, demand grew, and Gaiser was increasingly able to sell Tofu products to a wider range of interested customers in organic food shops. In 1980, he started production of soy-based specialties in earnest. The small enterprise was one of the very first manufacturers of Tofu in Germany, starting out in the ‘Milchhausle’ (Lit. “Small milk house”), a former dairy in the Swabian small town of Mossingen. Soy beans were supplied by an organic farmer in nearby Tübingen. In 1984, “Yamato Tofuhaus GmbH” officially entered the company register.

不久之后需求增长，而盖泽尔也日益能够向有机食品店内感兴趣的更多顾客销售豆腐产品。1980年，他开始正式生产特色豆制品。他在“Milchhausle”（“小的牛奶屋”）创办的这家小企业属于德国最早一批的豆腐制造商；这里原来是斯瓦比亚小镇默辛根的一处乳品间。原材料大豆由附近图宾根市（Tubingen）的一个有机农场主进行供应。1984年，“Yamato Tofuhaus有限责任公司”正式注册成立。

What followed were busy and turbulent years which, despite all difficulties, brought steady growth. Tofu began to be better known in Germany, and demand increased steadily. In 1987, the company moved into a larger building in Tübingen. From 1989 on, a company in the health food market took a share in Yamato, planning a large Tofu manufactory. In 1992, Gaiser left the Joint Venture.

接下来的几年里，公司上下辛勤忙碌，发展屡经波折，尽管遇到了各种各样的困难，但业务稳步增长。豆腐的名声开始在德国更广泛地传播开来，而其需求也持续增长。1987年，公司搬迁到图宾根市内一栋更大的建筑。从1989年开始，一家保健食品市场上的公司取得了Yamato Tofuhaus公司的一部分股份，准备规划一个大型的豆腐制造厂。1992年，盖泽尔离开了这个合资企业。

TOPAS: the birth of Wheaty

Topas：Wheaty的诞生

As a result of a radically new approach, Gaiser founded Topas, the company behind Wheaty, in 1993. Its products were to be based on the other pillar of vegetarian Asian cuisine: the wheat-protein based Seitan. Initially, pasta were on the menu, too – TOPAS is short for Tofu-Pasta-Seitan. Gaiser was fascinated by traditional japanese noodles. They, completely unknown at the time in Europe, featured alongside vegetarian ‘Swabian pockets’, a type of pasta traditionally filled with meat.

在全新思路的推动下，盖泽尔于1993年创立了Wheaty产品背后的公司Topas。新公司产品立足于亚洲素食的另一大基石：小麦蛋白面筋。刚开始的时候，公司还生产面食制品──TOPAS是Tofu-Pasta-Seitan（豆腐-面食-面筋）的简写。盖泽尔对传统的日本面条也很着迷。当时的欧洲人对这些食品完全是闻所未闻；它们与素食的“斯瓦比亚饺子”（一种传统肉馅面食）一起作为公司的主打产品。

Before long, however, Seitan-based products became more and more important to the company. Its philosophy now headed in a completely new direction: while the ideal at Yamato had been to convince Europeans of the excellence of Asian cuisine, the new creations mimicked the look and taste of well-known domestic meat products.

时间没过多久，面筋制品对Topas公司显得越来越重要。Topas公司的理念现在正朝向一个全新的方向：虽然以前Yamato Tofuhaus公司的理想是让欧洲人信服卓越的亚洲烹饪法，但Topas公司的新颖产品却踏上了模仿著名国产肉制品外观和味道的路线。

At the time, this change of direction was not an obvious choice: while Tofu had steadily gained popularity and acceptance in Germany throughout the eighties – not least thanks to Yamato Tofuhaus -, hardly anyone had heard about Seitan in the nineties. The new company’s first delivery, in 1994, was a measly four small boxes; business was initially conducted around the living room table at the family home. But this wouldn’t last for long. Topas’s Wheaty range would grow more and more successful with every year.

在当时来说，这样的方向改变并不是一个容易让人想得通的选择：虽然豆腐的流行度和接受度在整个1980年代的德国都持续上升──特别是由于Yamato Tofuhaus公司的产品宣传推广──但在1990年代却几乎没有人听说过面筋这种东西。Topas公司在1994年首次发货，产品数量少得可怜，只装了四个小盒子；而最初的业务活动就在家庭住宅内的客厅桌子上展开。但这种情况并没有维持多久。Topas公司的Wheaty产品系列随后逐年增长，愈加兴旺发达。

One of the young company’s iconic first products was the “Spacebar.” Created in 1996 to resemble a traditional German sausage, the Landjager, it “took off like a rocket,” Gaiser says today. The product hit a nerve: the vegan scene in the nineties lacked a hearty, protein-rich snack that could be taken anywhere. Today, with a PETA award under its belt, the Spacebar range is still an essential part of the company’s product range, with four delicious varieties.

“Spacebar”（“空格键”）是这家年轻公司最早推出的标志性产品之一。1996年研发的这款产品看上去像一种传统的德国香肠“Landjager”，它（的销量）“像火箭般一飞冲天”，盖泽尔如今感慨道。当时的这款产品切中要害：1990年代的素食市场缺少可以随身携带走遍四方的营养丰富的高蛋白零食。今天的Spacebar系列产品已荣获PETA奖（善待动物组织奖），包含四个美味可口的品种，仍然是该公司产品系列中的重要组成部分。

Turn of the millennium: massive growth

世纪之交：大规模发展

In 2000, the company had grown so much that it had to move to dedicated facilities in Mossingen. The new hall measured some 300 square meters (about 3,200 sq ft), and there was great concern whether it wouldn’t be too large, something that Klaus Gaiser and his wife, Sanni Ikola-Gaiser, have to smile about today – because before long, the landlord was approached about renting another floor in the same building, and then another. The staff grew as well – from initially just the Gaiser family (with local students, helping out labelling products – a popular summer job even today) to five employees in 2000, and more than two hundred today.

2000年，随着公司的发展壮大，不得不搬迁到位于默辛根的专用设施。新生产车间面积大约300平方米（约3200平方英尺）；克劳斯·盖泽尔和妻子桑尼·伊科拉-盖泽尔（Sanni Ikola-Gaiser）曾经很操心这个地方会不会太大了，如今重忆往事两人依然难掩发自内心的微笑──因为没隔多久他们又联系上了业主，打算租用同一栋楼里的另一层，然后再租一层。同时员工队伍也不断扩大了──从最初只包括盖泽尔家庭成员（有些本地学生也来帮忙贴产品标签，这是至今仍然很受欢迎的暑期工作），发展到2000年的五位雇员，再到今天的二百多名人员。

The Wheaty range, comprising about 50 products, is sold in sixteen countries now. The company moved into even larger premises a couple of years ago; Klaus Gaiser remains in charge of developing new products, in a converted butchery down the road from the Milchhausle where everything began more than 30 years ago.

Wheaty品牌目前囊括了大约50种产品，销往16个国家。公司在几年前迁移到了更大的经营场所；克劳斯·盖泽尔现在仍负责开发新产品，他工作的地点原来是一家肉食店，现已经过焕然一新的改造，与30多年前的事业诞生地Milchhausle位于同一条道路上。

Wheaty today

今天的Wheaty

Once a niche phenomenon for a small circle of enthusiasts, our products – along with vegan alternatives in general – have long reached the mainstream, featuring in major newspapers, magazines, and other media. Only a decade ago, it would have been unthinkable that a publication like Men’s Health should write as favourably about our products as it did in 2012, presenting us as a serious alternative to the butcher’s when looking for something to put on the grill.

我们的产品──以及一般的纯素替代品──曾经属于面向一小圈子爱好者的小众市场，但现在早已经成功融入主流，获得了各大报刊、杂志和其他媒体的重点推介。到了2012年，像《男士健康》（Men's Health）这样的出版物可以赞同的语气描写我们的产品了，把我们的产品当作肉食的正经替代品，在人们想找点东西放到烤架上烤来吃的时候能够派上用场，而仅仅在十年以前，这一切可能都是令人难以想像的。

Despite our massive growth, we haven’t forgotten our pioneer roots. We take great strides to manufacture our products ethically and sustainably. We have always been certified organic; we avoid ingredients that are sourced from rainforest areas, or are otherwise ethically dubitable. We purchase our raw materials from central Europe where possible. We have always avoided palm oil – long before it became a news item – because we believe that even its organic variety is ecologically questionable.

尽管取得了巨大的增长，我们依然没有忘记我们的先驱根基。我们一如既往积极奋进，以合乎道德和可持续的方式制造我们的产品。我们始终通过有机认证；我们避免采用购自雨林地区的或者有道德问题的原料。我们尽可能采购欧洲中部的原材料。我们一直避免使用棕榈油──远在其成为新闻事件之前──因为我们认为，即使棕榈油属于有机品种，但其存在生态方面的问题。

We’re looking forward to many more years of being the market’s most innovative company, surprising you with vegan delights old and new!

我们期待着未来继续成为市场上最具创新力的公司，推出更多令人惊喜的新旧纯素美食！