Celebrate with Weleda

Celebrating 30 green years in Derbyshire

When Dr Rudolf Steiner asked the man he described as his 'brother', Mr Dunlop, to set up British Weleda Co in 1925 - shortly after the founding of Weleda in Switzerland in 1921 - the resulting British Board rather lacked business acumen! For some years the company struggled to develop and after six years of trading, annual sales amounted to only £1,153.

Not until the 1960s could the company report significant growth, promoting us to move north to Derbyshire in 1978 in order to expand the manufacturing site and develop our own oganic herb gardens. But commercial gain was never our prime motive. Even in today's harsh commercial climate, if Weleda stuck only to the profitable lines, we could not offer nothing like the staggering 25,000 dispensed special medicines, 200 over-the-counter licensed medicines and over 90 chemical-free bodycare products available in our range of natural health products.

The philosophy of Weleda was and is the original thinking of Steiner. Steiner believed that people could only truly be well if they cherished the emotional and spiritual sides of their nature, as well as the physical. To many this philosophy is common sense, though it's something Western modern medicine frequently overlooks.

The word 'natural' and 'pure' have become over-used and devalued, but to Weleda these have very clear definitions. To Weleda, natural means plants or minerals used in their raw state, or purified for use. For Weleda, 'natural' also means growing ingredients organically, using the highest standards of biodynamic agriculture. In 1996, after two years of inspections, Weleda's gardening team's expertise won the company's 15 acre site in Derbyshire (where our herb gardens are based) the internationally-recognised Demeter standard.

When Weleda first came to the UK, there were no anthroposophic doctors in the UK, and it wasn't until the early 30's that Dr Nunhofer arrived from Switzerland, followed by Dr Sommer, who later established the first NHS anthroposophic practice. In 1935 European refugees such as Dr Engle, Dr Glas and Dr Koenich joined these pioneers.

Today Britain boasts about 325 anthroposophic healthcare professionals and a number of societies that hold the anthroposophic philosophy as their central tenet such as the British Association of Anthroposophic Pharmacists which includes Weleda.

The start of the 21st century has seen both opportunities and challenges. A major task for Weleda for the new millenium was to ensure that by the start of 2000 all products were guaranteed free from any genetically modified materials.

Since 2000 Weleda has added almost 50 new products to its bodycare range, a dozen in the last 2 years alone and have relaunched and repackaged 20 others, to create a top-to-toe natural range to enhance and maintain wellbeing.

A company like Weleda relies on committed staff - today there are approximately 100 employed by Weleda UK, including the dedicated gardening team, pharmacists and dispensary staff, specialist customer service departments, technical support, laboratory and quality assurance teams, marketing and admin who keep the wheels well oiled. Over 400 orders a day are processed by Weleda for hospitals and clinics, complementary health practitioners and health retailers.