Hans Peter Wild joined his parents’ company WILD in 1974 after studying law in Heidelberg and economics with tax law and accounting at the University of Mannheim. He completed his PhD on “The market-dominating company under French law” at the Faculty of Law of the University of Mannheim in 1969.
After joining the company, his aim was to expand the company internationally. The main asset of the company was their so far best known product, Capri Sun. Having had an interest for boxing as a student, Hans Peter Wild won Muhammed Ali to be at the center of a worldwide successful advertising campaign for Capri Sun in 1979. The success of the campaign let to a breakthrough: for US customers, WILD had to be a great company, since they had been able to get Ali for their campaign. Hans Peter Wild’s decision to bet on Capri Sun had been right, as the fruit beverage is now famous worldwide.
Since his two sons had no interest in joining the family company, he had to think about the future of WILD. His wish was to turn WILD into a public company. In 2010 the investor KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) acquired shares of WILD. Eventually, WILD Flavors was sold in 2014 to Archer Daniels Midland Company – ADM, one of the largest agricultural processors worldwide. However, Hans Peter Wild still owns his world-famous product Capri Sun, with headquarters in Switzerland.
Today, the Wild Factories, with their headquarters in Eppelheim – near Heidelberg, is the world’s biggest producer of natural ingredients for the food and beverage industry. They have an income of more than a billion Euros and 2500 employees worldwide. The company's motto “We Create Great Taste” displays its commitment to create innovative, high quality, safe and great tasting food and beverage products.
