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ZOTTER CHOCOLATE Rely on VARIETY, QUALITY AND CREATIVITY

100% ORGANIC + FAIR TRADE + BEAN-TO-BAR

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)

VARIETY AND CREATIVITY • 500 FLAVOURS

Josef Zotter has re-invented chocolate: Hand-scooped Chocolates are basically giant bonbons. Featuring wonderful flavour combinations and distinctive, artistic sleeve designs, Hand-scooped Chocolates have become iconic. They’re filled chocolate miracles consisting of several layers, brushed onto long lanes – one on top of the other – by hand. Zotter’s flavour combinations are

classic like »Milk Choco Mousse« and »Marzipan and Almonds« and eccentric like »Hemp Bonbon« and »Cola & Popcorn«, but all of them offer a unique flavour experience. Hand-scooped Chocolates are available in more than 100 flavours, all invented by Josef and his daughter Julia Zotter. From the very beginning, our good friend, artist Andreas H. Gratze has created many individual sleeve designs, which turn each chocolate into a unique work of art as well as the perfect gift.

We produce a total of around 500 different flavours: our range includes the iconic Hand-scooped Chocolates, pure single origin chocolates, drinking chocolates, pralines, couvertures and handmade organic bonbons. At our Mixing Bar, customers may create their own individual chocolates from various ingredients, shapes and fillings by picking their favourite flavours. All our chocolates are organic, fair and bean-to-bar.

THE NEW SEASON WITH A FOCUS ON NUTS

Nuts are quite the trend at the moment – everywhere and of course also at Zotter’s: they

are classic fare with precious nutrients and can be enjoyed as a comfort food snack. Nuts

dominate our new collection and are also a focus in our new »Praliné« range, the »Whole

Nuts« chocolates with whole nuts, the »Crema«, the chocolate spread in a jar, our »Hand-scooped

Chocolates«, the nibbly »Balleros« and the sugar-alternative »Squaring the Circle« range.

We open this season with 16 Hand-scooped Chocolates, real classics like »Choco Mousse«, which

is available in white, dark and milk chocolate. Also on the menu are wine classics like »White

Wine« from our own vineyards, »Red Wine«, »Sweet Wine red« and »Fig & Port«, sweetened with

maple sugar, a sugar alternative also responsible for the sweetness in our »Granola + Fruit«.

There are some more moments of nutty indulgence to be had with Almonds, Chestnuts, Pecans

and our homemade »Pine Nut Marzipan«.

And the award for craziest chocolate of the season goes to »Cola & Popcorn« by Julia Zotter,

created with Austrian cola, cola jelly and caramelised popcorn dipped in praline.

With our charity chocolate »Chocolate Banana«, we are supporting a new project: 50 cents

out of every chocolate sold go towards the Caritas children’s charity project “Chocolate for

School” in Uganda. Our project funds school lunches for 600 primary school children –

for some of these pupils it’s the only meal of the day – as well as their teachers’ salaries

and a school canteen expansion and upgrade. We would love for you to support this

campaign. Together, we can move mountains. Our Peru project has been completed and

has managed to raise a total of 67.000 euros for the Kindernothilfe, a charity for children

in need.

Our »Labooko« range features 2 entirely new cacao varieties: West African island cacao from

São Tomé and Zorzal cacao, grown and harvested in a bird sanctuary located in a nature

reserve in the Dominican Republic. Our »70% Nicaragua« chocolate also contains cacao grown

in a conservation area. Particularly environmentally conscious is the cacao from Belize, which

we have delivered via sailboat. And with our »100% Maya Cacao«, we’ve brought a new

treasure into the Labooko range: no sugar, just 100% mythical Maya cacao from Belize

and Guatemala.

All new in our collection is the delicious »Fruit Bar«. Colourful fruit couvertures with lots of crispy

bits of fruit, in 9 flavours like »Raspberry & Raspberries«, »Blueberry & Blueberries« or the vegan

»Cranberry & Cranberries«. All entirely natural: tender-melting and crunchy at the same time, with

stunning colours and genuine fruit flavour.

CHOCOLATE – BEAN-TO-BAR

We make everything in-house, from the first step to the last, thus making us one of the very few bean-to-bar producers in Europe. The roasting, milling and conching is done in small batches, adjusted to the individual cacao bean so we can demonstrate the exciting world of cacao. We often travel to our cacao growing regions in order to find the most sublime and rare cacao varieties. Not unlike wine,

each cacao variety has its own very distinct flavour, shaped by the terroir of its growing region. Sometimes that flavor is nutty, sometimes it has more of a flowery bouquet like the Ecuadorian beans or more citrus notes like the beans from Madagascar. All our chocolates contain only the best raw materials. We use fine flavour cacao bean varieties as opposed to ordinary bulk cocoa, we exclusively use cocoa butter instead of palm oil, raw cane sugar, milk from alpine farms and genuine Bourbon vanilla, the second most expensive spice in the world after saffron. The Austrian location employs around 200 people who produce fresh chocolate every day and also take care of all the other things our workshop requires.

100% ORGANIC & FAIR TRADE

Our entire business is Fair Trade verified. We are a member of WFTO – the World Fair Trade Organization, which is the umbrella organization for global fair trade. The WFTO monitors business compliance with the 10 principles of fair trade like, among others, transparency, respect for the environment, the payment of fair prices and no use of child labour. We buy our cacao directly from the growers and are happy to pay well above the global market rates for a high-quality product. A big factor in producing that exceptional quality is personal contact and collaboration. Julia Zotter has visited our Maya cacao farmers in Belize and Guatemala last summer. Afterwards she has been in Peru, where a lot of our cacao suppliers live.

We mainly buy our cacao in Latin America, the cradle of cacao. We get our fine flavour cacao from various different countries like Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Togo, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, São Tomé and India.

Each chocolate contains a piece of history – from Belize’s Maya cacao to cacao 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 cacao from Belize, transported by sailboat: for the third time a sail cargo ship landed at Hamburg port, carrying our cacao. It was transported entirely emission-free and completely sustainably by the Brigantes and Timbercoast crews. 

Fair traded organic cacao beans from small farms, grown in a mixed crop agriculture, produce a better flavour but also ensure the preservation of local cultures – of humans and plants.

ONE OF THE MOST SUSTAINABLE COMPANIES IN AUSTRIA

We only use organic and fair traded raw materials because those are simply better for us humans and our environment. We also run our business with 100% clean energy, we produce our own power with a photovoltaic generator and we have a fleet of electric vehicles. Our organic farm covers 80 hectares, from which we get many ingredients for the free, organic lunch for our 200 employees.

We have created a number of development aid projects like »Cocoa not Cocaine« in South America, planted trees in rainforests and we are the proud recipients of the European Business Award for Sustainability in Austria. Our chocolate factory 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.

ZOTTER’S EXPERIENCE WORLD • THE CHOCOLATE THEATRE & THE EDIBLE ZOO

Our Chocolate Theatre offers an exciting tasting tour. Visitors can experience first-hand how chocolate is made! At our transparent factory, you can see every step of the production process. Everything, from bean to bar, is produced in-house. With many tasting stations like the bonbon roller coaster, a chocolate-serving robot, a praline fountain, the smallest drinking chocolate-serving cable car in the world. And of course the highlight our Hand-scooped Chocolate amuse-bouches, going round and round at our Running Chocolate station.

The very topical subjects of ecology and environmental protection are ongoing themes visitors will encounter all along the tour and in particular at our Edible Zoo, an organic adventure farm where old, rare breeds graze happily and regional vegetables and fruit thrive. At our farm-to-table »Öko-Essbar« restaurant, we make delicious food and drink from all the good things that live and grow on our organic farm: organic food directly from our own pastures and gardens. We have fresh herbs, serenely grazing animals and organic produce. Our restaurant offers stunning natural scenery instead of candlelit interior deco – everything we think a great restaurant should have. Enjoy organic food directly from our own pastures and gardens surrounded by nature!Everything is 100% organic, from the starters and drinks to the delicious desserts. We exclusively use our own organic meats from happy animals we rear ourselves. Our animals are robust and healthy and run around outside all year round. They graze all over the 27 hectares of land surrounding our restaurant as well as our adjacent mixed crop fields. All in all, we cultivate and harvest 80 hectares of organic farmland in order to run our restaurant. Appreciation towards the animal and its meat is very important to us. Look at the animal you want to eat and then decide how much of it you would like to consume. We also offer smaller portions of meat as well as many vegetarian dishes – eating less meat helps reduce climate change.

At the Edible Zoo, we use solar energy to cook our food. We keep the entire location energy-self-sufficient by running a huge photovoltaic generator and geothermal heat pump.

FAMILY BUSINESS

Our family business was founded in 1987, then we had to file for bankruptcy but in 1999, we opened the chocolate factory. Josef and Ulrike Zotter run the company together, and all those brilliant, innovative product ideas are developed by Josef Zotter in collaboration with his daughter Julia. Son Michael is the IT expert. Youngest daughter Valerie is still a pupil and attends the hotel management school.

Award selection

»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)

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. 

The Top 25 are awarded 6 cacao pods. 6 cacao 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 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. 

2018 Winner of the 2018 Energy Globe Award Austria

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 Tavoletta d‘Oro: in Italy, Zotter wins the Tavoletta d’Oro 2019 with its Labooko Brazil and joins

the stars of the chocolate scene like Amedei and Domori.

2019 Zotter is one of the most popular brands in Austria: Zotter among the top 10! According to the Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) 2019, some of the 10 most important brands in Austria are internet giants Google, Wikipedia, WhatsApp, Microsoft and – as a sweet little surprise – Zotter in 9th place.

2019 The prestigious European Candy Kettle Award 2019 is given out by the European Candy Kettle Club to products of extraordinary quality and innovation, and in 2019 this award goes to Zotter chocolates, previously only bestowed onto big players like Ferrero, Lindt & Sprüngli and Valrhona.

2019 Josef Zotter is awarded the Grand Order of Merit of the Austrian state of Styria.

2019 Josef Zotter has been awarded the 13th annual Walter Scheel Medal to honour his exceptional contribution to the development of our great European chocolate culture. »He is one of the world’s best chocolate producers and shows that competence and top artisanal product quality are not synonymous with an elitist approach and that fairness and sustainability can be much more than just marketing speak. With his highly innovative product range, his “bean to bar” processes and exclusively organic and fair trade produce, Josef Zotter impressively demonstrates how successful ethical business practices can become in the 21st century.«

2020 Styrian Panther of Tourism for Zotter's oeuvre.

2020 Best Employer in Styria: Zotter is the overall winner.

2020 Zotter sweeps the board with 15 submissions resulting in 11 gold and 4 silver medals at the 3rd International Pastry Competition, organised by the Austrian National Food Industry Guild.

History

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

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 factory is opened.

In 2001, Zotter began to travel to the countries of cacao 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 factory to bean-to-bar production and to the Chocolate Theatre.

Bean-to-bar: Zotter invests 18 million to process chocolate directly from the cacao bean onwards. The fair traded organic cacao is purchased directly, roasted, ground, milled and conched. With this, Zotter lays the foundation for the development of the workshop 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.)

Chocolate 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 Chocolate Theatre. 27 hectares of adventure farming (a total of 80 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 factory 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 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. 

2019 The chocolate theatre expands: The Panorama Choco Space is added and increases the chocolate theatre by 200 m2. Further additions are many new tasting stations including a chocolate Ferris wheel, bonbon roller coasters, a robot serving chocolate snacks you can order via touchscreen menu, a dental clinic with sugar-free chocolates, a Hammer Choc workshop and much more.

2019 Zotter reacts to the political »Ibiza scandal« with a »Bergl not Ibiza«-chocolate bar. Instead of the rather conventional Red Bull and vodka, Zotter combines hemp praline and plum schnapps with a blue blackcurrant layer. Naturally the chocolate is also “white-washed” with a white chocolate coat. The »Bergl not Ibiza« chocolate bar is an instant success.

2019 Zotter opens the new season with 24 new Hand-scooped Chocolates, 4 new Hand-scooped Chocolate minis and a unicorn chocolate lolly for kids. The Labooko range features 6 new and delicious dark chocolates.

2020 Zotter opens this season with 16 new, Hand-scooped Chocolates, a new chocolate range: »Fruit Bar«, available in 9 flavours, 3 new Labooko flavours and many new designs.

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)

· Cacao countries: Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, Brazil, Belize, Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Togo, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, São Tomé and India.

· Production volume: around 200 tons of cacao beans and 150 tons of cocoa butter are processed into 646 tons of chocolate

· Product range: around 500 different chocolate flavours and choice individual chocolates, created by the customers themselves.

· Ingredients: around 400 organic ingredients

· Turnover 2018/19: 24 million euros

· Employees: around 200 employees at the Riegersburg/Austria location, 7 of which are trainees.

20 employees at the Chocolate Theatre in Shanghai/China

· Number of visitors to the Chocolate Theatre: 200,000 visitors every year

· Energy production: the factory 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 • AUSTRIA

Susanne Luef

Zotter Marketing

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

susanne.luef@zotter.at

Zotter Chocolate • UK

Merchant Europe Ltd - Chocolate Broker

Keith Lowe

Phone: +44 (0)1926/ 403288

Mobile: +44 (0)7740/ 606990

keith.lowe@merchanteurope.co.uk 


z o t t e r Schokolade GmbH

Bergl 56 • 8333 Riegersburg • Austria • phone: +43 (0)3152/5554 • fax: +43 (0)3152/5554-3222

www.zotter.at • email: schokolade@zotter.at