To be prepared for such an eventuality, the Army visited JOWA on Oct. 11.
Beat Allenbach, Deputy Head of Security & National Crisis Staff of M Group says at the time of the exercise: “This exercise has nothing to do with the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia. But, we are interested in working with the Army and at the same time, the Army has a mandate to exercise how they could protect a critical infrastructure like JOWA Gränichen is in an incident.”
The JOWA wholesale bakery in Gränichen, which belongs to Migros Industrie, is one of several such critical infrastructures in Switzerland that require special protection in the event of an emergency. It could become the task of the Swiss Armed Forces to provide this protection, which is why a preventive protection exercise was conducted in Gränichen as part of a commanders’ seminar. The choice of location was not made by Migros, explains Beat Allenbach, but by the canton of Aargau.
Critical infrastructure tour
The numerous industrial baking ovens and cooling systems require energy – and depend on a flawless energy supply for their daily operation. This is largely ensured by a wood-fired heating plant. Wood chips delivered daily are burned and provide sufficient energy to keep the daily baking operation running. Which is an obvious advantage in the current tight energy situation. During a tour, the cadre of Mech Br 11 gained an insight into the complex infrastructure of the JOWA. In addition to the heating plant, the numerous delivery and distribution points would also have to be protected.
The tour met with great interest among the cadres, says Beat Allenbach, who coordinated the protection exercise with the army. Thanks to the information that the JOWA were able to convey to the army and the subsequent tour, they would now have a good basis for deciding how they would protect the JOWA Gränichen in the event of an incident. The commander of Mech Br 11, Brigadier Gregor Metzler, found it very impressive to be able to look inside an industrial production facility for once. After the tour, he now knows what is involved in a large bakery, what demands are made on the protection of this site and what the protection would ultimately look like. “The last two years have shown us that already having a plan in place in the event of a crisis is not the worst idea,” Metzler said.
Specialization in frozen products
It is not the first time that JOWA has had to deal with the army, says Peter Brunner, JOWA security officer, during the tour with the cadres – and refers to the so-called “nuclear bread” that JOWA once produced. Starting in the 1960s, “atomic bread” was the name given to a fresh bread treated with an alcohol solution that could be kept for up to two years and apparently tasted better than its reputation. Even today, JOWA manufactures products that have a longer shelf life. In addition to the range of fresh products, in recent years JOWA has specialized in frozen products such as frozen bread or frozen pizza.