Hi! My botfriend and I want to move to swizerland in the next few months. I was born in Switzerland, but have lived in the uk all my life and my boyfriend is English.
We would like to start our own business- selling home made curry sauces and possibly catering. He is awesome at cooking (especially curries)

Im just not sure if people would be up for it in Switzerland?
And the laws around opening your own business?

Any feed back apprieciated

in general swiss food is very bland and with hardly any spice. All curries / asian food is heavily toned down to suit the swiss palate.

If you consider it as just some loose change then fine, but I would not count on it as the main source of income.

Your other issue will be work/residance permits - if you hold a swiss pass then its not an issue

You'll need training and certification in food perp and service. It's not unmanageable, but it's a lot of work and only in the local language.

Get in touch with the restaurant association in the canton you will be living.

Good luck!

Swiss folk generally would not be up for it, but English folk might be.... just be aware that it would be quite a small market.

You would need to register as a company or self employed and get a food handling license and it is highly unlikely that you could operate this from home (from the authorities point but also from your landlords).

Re selling the sauces, EF would be a good place to post but I also may have some places that you may be able to sell at. Get back to me if you ever get it off the ground.

The curry takeaways and restaurants around my places of work are full at lunchtime. I have Swiss colleagues at work and they love to go for a curry for lunch (the main meal of the day for them) with me. We go average 1.5 times per week together and at least once it is the curry place at "Talacker" opposite the Irish pub on Sihlstrasse.

Places like Mishio's, Tiffins in Seefeld (you will know them when you get here) do good business to my knowledge. Personally I think your best bet would be a prime location near some offices.

It is a very different market in terms of prices, portions & quality (it must be good quality fresh ingredients) and as some other responses indicate food hygiene courses and regulations would need to be met.

This company www.startups.ch provide alot of information in English about starting a business here. I think for food business an Einzelfirma (sole trader) or a partnership, if you want to work together on the business, would be fine, but take advice on the matter, I am no expert.

I set up my sole trading firm a year ago here and it is absolutely buzzing. I have both Swiss & international customers so think about pitching to a wide audience and as I say, all the Swiss I know (the under 45s certainly) love a good curry too. Good luck and let me know how you go. I'd be interested to try some of your food.

Not sure if this is true everywhere - I had butter chicken in Zürich yesterday, and it was so spicy I could barely eat it! Usually butter chicken is the safe option...

I think some Swiss and some of us non-Swiss, non-English folk might be interested too.

But I agree. Switzerland is a small market. So you'll have a small market in a small market with the added challenge that the products needed are imports and could also cost more than "normal" stuff eating into profits.

Not a bad idea for the OP to continue to investigate. I'm hungry!

Very small market considering that most Swiss - including me until I went to the UK for the first time - don't even know what a proper curry is...they think about Riz Casimir when you say curry.

Give us a shout too if you get off the ground. Providing you can get the stuff jarred and with a reasonable shelf life we can help you test the market.