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www.zotter.at /“About Zotter”/ “Press”

ZOTTER CHOCOLATES RELY ON QUALITY, VARIETY, CREATIVITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND

ARE 100% ORGANIC AND FAIR TRADE

Zotter ranks among the best chocolatiers in the world"Zotter is and will remain at the top of the world-best chocolate manufacturers and by far the most

innovative chocolatier of all." (Chocolate – the reference standard 2015)

VARIETY AND CREATIVITY

Zotter focuses on innovation. It’s important for us to offer a wide and varied range of products – from

classics like Butter Caramel and Raspberry to eccentric creations like Bread Break, created with bread

schnapps made from organic bread leftovers.

We offer more than 400 different chocolate varieties, and at our Mixing Bar, customers can create their

own individual chocolates from a number of ingredients, shapes and fillings.

The new season will bring 21 new, hand-scooped chocolates.

We typically introduce between 30 and 70 new products per year. And who comes up with all those

amazing ideas? Josef Zotter of course, although lately he’s had quite a bit of help from his daughter

Julia, the other creative mind in the family business.

Experiments are our passion and we use our own in-house bean-to-bar manufactory to develop new

ideas and products. Like those bright, fruity chocolates – their stunning colours and flavours derived

entirely naturally from fruit alone – or those sweet little chocolate lightbulbs in all different flavours and

colours. Or the Basic Choco Nougat, which you can turn into your own, home-made bonbons in no-

time.

Since the very beginning, our great artist friend Andreas H. Gratze has created a unique, individual

design for each of our chocolate bars and those little pieces of art turn each choc into a first-rate gift.

A wide range instead of the same old stuff – we do it like Mother Nature, our products focus on variety

and lots of surprises. We offer everything from our hand-scooped chocolate cult hits to pure single

origin chocolates, drinking chocolates, nougats, couvertures up to hand-made Biofekt organic

bonbons.

z o t t e r Schokoladen Manufaktur GmbHBergl 56 • 8333 Riegersburg • Austria • phone: +43 (0)3152/5554 • fax: +43 (0)3152/5554-3222

www.zotter.at • email: [email protected]

CHOCOLATE – BEAN-TO-BAR

At our Riegersburg-based chocolate manufactory, we produce our own chocolates, bean-to-bar.

It’s all made in-house, from the fragrant cocoa bean to the finished chocolate bar. We roast, grind, mill

and conch in small batches, all individually fine-tuned to each cocoa variety.

The Riegersburg location employs 185 people who produce fresh chocolate every day and also take

care of all the other things our manufactory requires.

New FAIR logoAt the beginning of the 2018/19 season, we resigned the Fairtrade certification and have applied a

FAIR “hand sign” as our new logo. We are members of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO),

and they certify our entire business according to their guidelines, which enables us to distance

ourselves from the mass balance supply chain system used in the Fairtrade structure. We continue to

focus on 100% fair trade and physical traceability and transparency of all our raw materials. Josef

Zotter explains: “I continue to believe that Fairtrade is a good idea – it’s definitely better than the

absence of any regulation, but I want my customers to be able to buy a chocolate that contains exactly

what it says on the wrapper.”

Fine flavour cocoa from the best cocoa growing regions in the world We mainly buy our cocoa in Latin America, the cradle of cocoa. We get our fine flavour cocoa from

various different countries like Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil, Belize,

the Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Togo and Congo.

Each chocolate contains a piece of history – from Belize’s Maya cocoa to cocoa from Panama and

Peru, cultivated by indigenous tribes in the middle of the rain forest, who use it to safeguard their

traditional way of life, to cocoa from Nicaragua, transported by sailboat: for the first time in 20 years, a

sail cargo ship landed at Hamburg port, carrying our cocoa. It was transported entirely emission-free

and completely sustainably by the Brigantes and Timbercoast crews.

Fairly traded organic cocoa from small farms, cultivated using crop rotation: this means delicious

flavour but also the preservation of cultures – human and plant.

We buy our cocoa directly from our farmers, pay way above the world market price and support them

continuously, so they stick with quality and fine flavour cocoa varieties like Criollo, Trinitario, Nacional

and Nativo and are therefore no longer dependent on the world market, which trades chiefly in bulk

cocoa. We often travel to our cocoa growing regions in order to meet our cocoa farmers and

conversely, we invite them over to visit our manufactory. Great interpersonal relationships make for a

very special product quality. In the summer of 2018, Julia Zotter spent 3 weeks in Peru to visit our

cocoa farmers and look in on our social campaign project, “Chocolate for School”.



TRANSPARENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY

If you want to learn how chocolate is produced, you can visit our Chocolate Theatre and see first-hand

how cocoa beans are turned into delicious chocolate, how hand-scooped chocolates are filled and

everything else there is to know about chocolate making.

We only use organic and fairly traded raw materials because it’s better for the environment as well as

us humans! As a producer, we feel it’s our responsibility to be sustainable and create added value

instead of aiming towards the highest profit margin and thereby using and abusing our environment

and the people we work with. Our chocolate manufactory counts among the most sustainable

businesses in Austria and we have also gained an EMAS certificate: external environmental experts

assessed our production life cycle and our environmental goals and found them exemplary. Our entire

production runs on clean power, a considerable part of which we produce ourselves with a gigantic

solar power system. We use electric vehicles and our canteen cooks an organic menu for our

employees fresh every single day, using ingredients from our Edible Zoo and our organic farm, both of

which are located right next to our manufactory and are open to the public. Organic all around.

FAMILY BUSINESS

We have founded our family business in 1987, went bankrupt and reopened it in 1999 as a chocolate

manufactory on my parents’ farm, as it was the cheapest location for a new start. At this point, even our

children Michael and Julia are employed by our business. Julia Zotter built the chocolate theatre in

Shanghai and ran it for three years. Now she’s back with us in Austria and develops new products

together with her father Josef Zotter. Michael has a head for technology, which is why he is responsible

for IT, facilities and our online shop. Our youngest daughter Valerie is our main taster at the moment

but does not have veto rights, because otherwise we’d produce nothing but white chocolate.

AWARD SELECTION

2015 Zotter ranks among the Top 25 - the best chocolatiers in the world. The chocolate world is

in motion, which is why the chocolate tester Georg Bernardini once again published a colossal

standard work (919 pages) about the international chocolate market. The test included 550 brands and

4,000 products from 70 countries.

"Zotter is and will remain at the top of the world-best chocolate manufacturers and by far the most

innovative chocolatier of all." (Chocolate – the reference standard 2015, p. 839)

The Top 25 are awarded 6 cocoa pods. 6 cocoa pods stand for "Extraordinary quality of all products.

Extremely rare to no deviations in the outstanding quality of the products."

(Chocolate – the reference standard 2015, p. 137)



Zotter is the only producer from Germany and Austria in the Top 25 and still the only one to

produce solely in organic and fair-trade quality.

2015 Josef Zotter is awarded Entrepreneur Of The Year, by the audit & consulting organisation EY at

an award gala at the Hofburg in Vienna. He wins in the category of Trade & Consumer Goods.

2016 Zotter wins the Academy of Chocolate Award 2016 in London. Zotter submitted 17 chocolates

and was awarded 2 x gold, 8 x silver and 5 x bronze, 15 times in total. A unique result for Zotter, next

to top chocolatiers such as Amedei, Michel Cluizel and Demarquette.

2016 Zotter wins the Brand Life Award 2016, awarded by the European Brand Institute.

2017 Zotter ranks among Austria's strongest brands 2017, published by Young & Rubicam.

2017 Zotter receives an award for the Best Environmental Declaration 2017.

2017 Zotter achieves 2 silver and 3 bronze awards with dark Labookos at the Academy of Chocolate Award 2017 in London.

2017 Zotter is nominated for the Österreichischer Klimaschutzpreis 2017 (the Austrian Climate

Protection Award). An expert jury selects his “Environmental Protection as a Concept for Success“ as

one of the three best projects in the corporate category.

2017 Zotter’s "Labooko Vintage 2016" wins bronze in the dark chocolate category at the influential

Northwest Chocolate Festival 2017 in Seattle – among 200 entries in total. The Labooko Vintage

2016 was created jointly by Josef Zotter and his daughter Julia to celebrate the company’s 30-

year anniversary using cocoa beans that had been dry-aged for an entire year.

2018 Winner of the 2018 Energy Globe Award Austria

2018 11 awards at the 2018 Academy of Chocolate Awards in London (for Hand-scooped

Chocolates, Labookos, Drinking Chocolates and Nougsus)

2018 Zotter is one of the strongest brands in Austria and landed in 12th place in Young &

Rubicam’s global market study, on the heels of giant international brands like Google, Amazon,

WhatsApp and even ahead of Apple and Ikea!



2018 The TOP-GEWINN-Image-Ranking 2018 shows Zotter shooting up the rankings to 14th place

(from last year’s 86th). Zotter made up 72 ranks, which makes us Aufsteiger des Jahres 2018 (shooting star of the year) in the image department.

2018 Zotter is nominated for the European Business Awards for the Environment 2018-2019

(EBAE).

2018 Zotter receives the Austria‘s Leading Companies (ALC) Special Award for the Corporate Integration of People with Disabilities .Josef Zotter: "As a family business, I see integration on

every level not just as our responsibility but also as one of our strengths. Maximising humanity is our

biggest asset, and it is our obligation to nurture the strongest as well as people who have been

disadvantaged in life!“

2019 EVE READER’S CHOICE 2019 – ButterCaramel. Several thousand eve readers chose their

favourite organic products. Zotter’s ButterCaramel was ranked among the 20 most popular items.

2019 “People of the Year 2018" – Josef Zotter wins the Kleine Zeitung newspaper’s extraordinary lifetime achievement award for his work as a visionary and contrarian.

HISTORY

Josef Zotter, born on February 21, 1961, in Feldbach (Styria).

Chocolatier, organic farmer and different-doer.Josef Zotter is a trained chef and waiter, pastry chef, and, for longer periods of time, worked as chef

and head chef in various luxury hotels, even in New York, among other places. Josef Zotter is married

to Ulrike Zotter and father of three children.

1987 Founding of the Zotter family business: Together with his wife Ulrike Zotter, the 26-year-old

Josef Zotter opens up the Zotter confectionary shop in Glacisstraße in Graz. The unusual creations

such as "hemp slice", "the funny pie" and "scarlet runner bean roll with coriander" earn regional fame.

Josef Zotter expands and opens up three more branches.

In 1992, Josef Zotter begins to produce chocolates in the back office of the confectionary shop in

Graz and invents the hand-scooped chocolate, a mixture of inventiveness and handwork, filled in

layers and plies. Also new are the 70 g format and the chocolate coating instead of the cubed breaking

pattern. The varieties of the first hour: poppyseed-cinnamon, pumpkin brittle with marzipan, hemp,

crudités, champagne and grilled walnuts with marzipan.



In 1994, chocolate and art blend together. Art designer Andreas h. Gratze turns the packaging into little works of art.

In 1999, the Zotters decide to bank entirely on chocolate. In the former stable of the parental farm, the

z o t t e r chocolate manufacture is opened.

In 2001, Zotter began to travel to the countries of cocoa cultivation and supported the farmers with

development aid projects like “Quality instead of poverty“ and “Cocoa instead of cocaine“ and

many more.

2007 Expansion of the manufacture to bean-to-bar production and to the Choco Shop Theatre.

Bean-to-bar: Zotter invests 18 million to process chocolate directly from the cocoa bean onwards. The

fairly traded organic cocoa is purchased directly, roasted, ground, milled and conched. With this,

Zotter lays the foundation for the development of the manufacture into a centre of competence for

chocolate. Many new chocolates are created. Insourcing instead of outsourcing: Josef Zotter is now

one of the few independent bean-to-bar producers in Europe and the first one to produce solely in

organic and fair-trade quality. (In general, only three global players produce a large part (about 80%)

of the overall world-wide chocolate demand.)

Choco Shop Theatre: Visitors can observe the production live, experience how chocolate is made

from the bean onwards and try, at various tasting stations, intermediate products such as milling

powder and of course also the finished bars.

In 2011, Zotter opens up the Edible Zoo as open-air part of the Choco Shop Theatre. 27 hectares of

adventure farming (a total of 72 hectares of organically cultivated farming, 27 hectares of which are

accessible to visitors), where Zotter serves the visitors organic meals, directly from his own pastures

and gardens.

In 2014, Zotter opens the Chocolate Theatre in Shanghai, which daughter Julia Zotter subsequently

runs until 2017. It’s a chocolate adventure world with tasting tour included, spread out over a 2400

square metre space. Within a very short time, the Chocolate Theatre has established itself as THE

place to be in the thriving megacity of Shanghai. The “Shanghai Wall Street Journal“ and “Smart

Shanghai“ name it as one of its top sightseeing destinations. Julia Zotter’s “No Pants“ events proves

particularly popular. In the autumn of 2017, Julia returns to the manufactory in Austria in order to work

on product development. Shanghai’s Chocolate Theatre and Shop are now run by general manager

Amy Fang.



In 2015, Zotter launched a shop in the US. The subsidiary is increasingly focused on online sales –

there is only one retail shop at the Cape Coral/Florida branch location.

2016 Riegersburg chocolate shop extension. Featuring a wall of manure reminiscent of the stable it

once was, a big bonbon counter where customers can put together their own bonbon boxes, a

Labooko library, a green, leafy storefront and a low waste station where you can buy Zotter chocolates

in bulk, without any of the wrapping.

2017 The world’s first Choco Robots start working at Zotter. Industry 4.0 means blending skilled

handicraft with innovation. Zotter wants to demonstrate that robots do not eliminate jobs but instead

substitute other machines, thereby safeguarding the future of existing employees. The robots add more precision to the process and enable individual manufacturing. At the moment they are

putting fillings into the wafer-thin Nashido bars. In the future, Josef Zotter wants to deploy the robots to

manufacture individual bonbons, tailored to specific customers. The demand for individual and one-of-

a-kind products will continue to rise. The choco robots are also one-of-a-kind – they were developed

by a group of students in the face of initial resistance by older engineers. The robots are the first of

their kind and are a perfect fit for Zotter and our desire to increasingly invest in innovative ideas.

2017 Josef Zotter travels to Peru and Madagascar for film shoots. In Peru, it’s a film about

growing organic cocoa in place of producing cocaine, which is playing at the Chocolate Theatre,

and in Madagascar, he makes a Virtual Reality Film. Visitors to the Chocolate Theatre can put VR

goggles on and dive into the cocoa jungle.

2017 Zotter celebrates the company’s 30-year anniversary: in 1987, Josef Zotter opens his first

confectionery shop in Graz/Austria, marries Ulrike and the couple welcome their daughter Julia. This

heralds the eventful start of the family business and the beginning of a slice of chocolate history.

2018: Zotter opens a 360° VR Theatre as the new highlight at the Edible Zoo: Visitors can beam

themselves to the colourful cocoa world of Madagascar, thanks to modern Virtual Reality technology

and VR-glasses.

2018/19 Zotter is starting off the new season with 21 new, hand-scooped chocolates with a bit of a

subdued, classic character as opposed to the usual madness.

Nougats, classic and vegan: Hazelnut Nougat Brittle, Hemp Bonbon, Nougat Layers, Walnut Nougat

Classics: Champagne + Raspberries, Nougat + Cookies, Coconut + Marzipan, Kir Royale, Lemon

Mousse

Special: “Sting” Red Edition – organic red wine by rock legend Sting – a must-eat for all music fans!



8 new chocolate gifts: classics like “Have a Great Trip” and “I Love You - Soooo Much!” as well as our

celebratory titles “Bravo! Amazing!“ and “Three Cheers For Us!“

2 eccentric flavours: Ginger + Lemon, Lingonberries + Peanuts + Salt

5 new Balleros: freshly roasted, crispy cocoa nibs, pure cocoa energy, covered in 5 different flavours

of chocolate: Dark Choco Nibs 70%, Milk Choco Nibs 40%, White Choco Nibs, Raspberry Choco Nibs,

Caramel Choco Nibs

5 new, dark Labookos: 73% 2017 Vintage, Dry Aged – the best of the best. These beans are

aged for a year – partly in oak barrels, like fine wine

72% Brazil, 70% Congo, 72% Peru Malingas (rare vintage cocoa turned into a single village

chocolate), 70% Nicaragua • Sail Shipped Cocoa, our sailing beans, which were delivered sustainably

and entirely without producing environmentally harmful emissions – a chocolate with the perfect

life-cycle assessment.

Raspberry and Coconut, the fruity, new, vegan chocolate

Labooko Single: The Labooko as a single bar featuring special lactose-free, vegan or sugar-free

flavours. Introducing two new chocolates as the perfect wine accompaniment, developed specifically

for chocolate and wine tastings.

No added sugar: diets change all the time – at the moment, reduced sugar is trending and so Zotter

has produced a range of chocolate sweetened with erythritol, an organic sugar alternative, which

tastes exactly like sugar but contains zero calories.

A new roasting method: For the latest Labookos, Zotter is deploying his newly developed FMR roasting method in order to highlight the cocoa beans’ flavour spectrum even more intensely. The

procedure works by injecting water or tea essence during the roasting process, which becomes a fine

mist making the temperature dip briefly. That in turn produces a softer roast considerably improving

the cocoa’s aroma.

FACTS

Bean-to-bar producer of chocolate and inventor of the hand-scooped chocolate Certifications: ORGANIC, EMAS

Membership: FAIR (member of the WFTO (World Fair Trade Organization)

Cocoa countries: Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil, Belize, Dominican

Republic, Madagascar, Togo and Congo

Production volume: around 200 tons of cocoa beans and 150 tons of cocoa butter are processed

into 646 tons of chocolate



Product range: over 400 different chocolate varieties and choice individual chocolates, created by the

customers themselves.

Ingredients: around 400 organic ingredients

Turnover 2017/18: 22 million euros

Employees: we have 185 employees at the Riegersburg/Styria location, 7 of which are trainees.

25 employees at the Chocolate Theatre in Shanghai/China

Number of visitors to the Choco Shop Theatre: 270,000 visitors every year

Energy production: the manufactory is 60% and the Edible Zoo 100% energy self-sufficient through

the use of solar power, steam power and geothermal energy.

Sales and distribution: worldwide, though mainly in the German-speaking countries (Austria,

Germany, Switzerland)

PRESS CONTACT

Zotter Chocolate • AUSTRIASusanne Luef

Zotter Marketing

Phone +43 (0) 3152/ 55 54-3202

[email protected]

Zotter Chocolate • UKMerchant Europe Ltd - Chocolate Broker

Keith Lowe

Phone: +44 (0)1926/ 403288

Mobile: +44 (0)7740/ 606990

[email protected]



mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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