diff --git a/ogscm/cli.py b/ogscm/cli.py
index 05c7b1901f97bd1fecf4663bd2eed30261fb3a98..33c055c32a76e2f0c62615c4c4d8f3f6f92561ea 100644
--- a/ogscm/cli.py
+++ b/ogscm/cli.py
@@ -212,6 +212,18 @@ def main():  # pragma: no cover
         if "jupyter/base-notebook-ubuntu" in args.runtime_base_image:
             Stage1 += raw(docker="USER root")
 
+    # set timezone
+    packages_tz = packages(ospackages=["tzdata"])
+    env_tz = environment(variables={"TZ": "Europe/Berlin"})
+    shell_tz = shell(
+        commands=[
+            "ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime",
+            "dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata",
+        ]
+    )
+    Stage0 += [packages_tz, env_tz, shell_tz]
+    Stage1 += [packages_tz, env_tz, shell_tz]
+
     cwd = os.getcwd()
     img_file = ""
     out_dir = f"{args.out}/{args.format}"
@@ -294,18 +306,6 @@ def main():  # pragma: no cover
         Stage0 += pip(packages=args.pip, pip="pip3")
         Stage1 += pip(packages=args.pip, pip="pip3")
 
-    # set timezone
-    packages_tz = packages(ospackages=["tzdata"])
-    env_tz = environment(variables={"TZ": "Europe/Berlin"})
-    shell_tz = shell(
-        commands=[
-            "ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime",
-            "dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata",
-        ]
-    )
-    Stage0 += [packages_tz, env_tz, shell_tz]
-    Stage1 += [packages_tz, env_tz, shell_tz]
-
     # Create definition
     hpccm.config.set_container_format(args.format)
     hpccm.config.set_singularity_version("3.5")