Hi, we are
Ulrike und Guntram,
your experts on Styrian pumpkin seed oil.
We produce one of the best Styrian pumpkin seed oils out there for connoisseurs like you.
We pour our heart and soul into our products and you will taste it.
STYRIAN PUMPKIN SEED OIL IN EVERY KITCHEN
Because it gives any salad a lovely dark green colour and leaves a wonderful Styrian-flavoured mark on it. Because it really brings out the flavour of vanilla ice cream and gives a finishing touch to scrambled eggs.
Yoko Ono once said: “A dream you dream alone is only a dream.
A dream you dream together is reality.”
Guntram:
From plumber to pumpkin oil sheikh
It didn’t take long to discover that it wasn’t the dream job after all.
Not long after having completed his apprenticeship, Guntram swaps the dusty building sites for the warm oil press in 1988 and discovers his passion for this traditional craft.
This is not to say that the apprenticeship was in vain, though.
As you can imagine, his professional background has proved to be a great advantage time and again.
Any time we need a new construction or a machine goes haywire, Guntram is glad that he learned something “decent”.
Ulrike:
More fascinated by the prince than the pumpkin seed oil
During fashion school Ulrike meets her prince and gets her first whiff of pumpkin seed oil.
This scent and love were enough: After marrying Guntram and having her 2nd son Ulrike quits her job and joins her husband in the oil business.
This made it possible to juggle family and career comfortably. So handy to have the business just a floor below!
At fashion school, she was able to delve into her creativity and flair for design, which, along with her commercial training, is now the foundation of her work in the family business.
Quality: One of the most important values spanning all Hamlitsch generations
Our philosophy:
Keeping traditional craftsmanship alive and preserving knowledge that has been passed down over generations. What could be more beautiful?
For us, this is the quintessence of quality.
Styrian pumpkin seed oil has been protected throughout the EU since 1996. And in the meantime the term has also become known outside of Austria.
Due to this protection, pumpkin seed oil needs to meet a set of fixed criteria.
Since the year 2000 these requirements are inspected every year at the pumpkin seed oil awards.
As experts for Styrian pumpkin seed oil, we’ve taken part from the very beginning, as you can imagine.
Our pumpkin seed oil has been awarded for smell, taste and quality for the 25rd time in a row.
Our heart beats organic
And that’s why our oil mill has been organically certified for over 20 years.
In the beginning, we only pressed our pumpkin seed oil in organic quality, but pretty soon we expanded our organic range.
Today we make linseed oil, hemp oil, pumpkin seed pesto, pumpkin seed nibbles and protein flours in organic quality made in Austria.
Our love for the environment makes it obvious for us to generate our own electricity from photovoltaic and solar systems.
We only process raw materials grown in Austria, for the most part they are even from our region.
Our products are packaged using as little plastic as possible and Guntram delivers orders in the surrounding areas with his electric cargo bike.
Ulrike und Guntram:
Two country bumpkins conquer the big wide world
Guntrams father had already been supplying customers all over Austria. Our new goal was to now reach Germany, Europe and the whole world.
Our first, very minimalist, website in 1999 brought us a big step closer to our goal. How can this be 20 years ago already?
All of a sudden our pumpkin seed oil became known in Germany, too. Success!
In our late 20s we were full of drive and motivation and wanted to conquer the world with our pumpkin seed oil.
2005 was our first international trade fair: payoff for our hard work. We set out with a newly designed label and a few English lessons. Can you imagine how excited we were?
And we came back home proud, having won an award for our pumpkin seed pesto and made many new contacts.
We still laugh to this day when we think back. Turns out exchanging business cards is purely a matter of being polite in many countries.
Soon, customers from all over Europe, Russia, Venezuela, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia joined us.
From imagination to reality: our dream came true.
The scent of pumpkin seed oil always brings us back to the here and now
Firmly rooted, we grew to unknown heights over the years:
New building, extension of the warehouse, more employees and in 2009 our first IFS certification.
With a strong team in the background, we managed to overcome all challenges.
Our passion for the product and our vision kept us motivated through stressful times.
Then and now the scent of pumpkin seed oil brings us back into the present and reminds us of why we started doing it in the first place.
Ulrike and Guntram only exist as a team:
Each on his own wouldn’t have come this far - it’s our recipe for success.
As in many family businesses, the most important tasks are divided among us.
Each of us does what we do best.
Guntram spends a lot of time in production. And as managing director, he looks after our contract farmers and customers.
He doesn’t like the paperwork, but Ulrike does: she is responsible for the bookkeeping and all marketing activities.
Developing new recipe ideas? Designing a label or advertisement? Writing a creative text?
That makes Ulrike’s heart beat faster and so her e-mails also tend to end with “kürbiskernölgrünen Grüßen” (pumpkin seed oil green greetings).
When it comes to decisions, however, we always sit down together.
Tradition and knowledge that’s been passed on over generations, combined with creativity, professionalism and love for our product.
You’ve read our story and are curious to try
our award-winning pumpkin seed oil?
What our customers say about our
Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil
Short and sweet: How we became a modern oil mill
- 1928 Foundation of the oil mill
- 1948 Josef Hamlitsch joins as bookkeeper
- 1964 Guntram Hamlitsch senior starts working in the oil mill
- 1972 Purchase of the company
- 1988 Guntram jun. joins the business at the age of 20 – 3 generations under one roof
- 1997 Addition of a new salesroom at the old location
- 1998 Ulrike joins the company
- 1999 First website – first sales abroad
- 2000 Guntram jun. takes over the oil mill
- 2000 First award for our Styrian pumpkin seed oil P.G.I.
- 2001 Since this year our oil mill is certified to be organic
- 2005 Our first exhibit at an international trade fair
- 2007 New building and relocation to a business park
- 2019 Extension of the warehouse
- 2024 We are especially proud of the 25rd award in a row for our Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil
