Zotter Living by Chocolate

MUKTI KHAIRE STEFAN AICHINGER MONIKA HOFFMANN MAXIMILIAN SCHNOEDL

Zotter – Living by Chocolate

I spend all day working on chocolate, that’s where I focus all my energy on. I don’t think anyone – including the customer – has the judgment to tell me what to do.

– Josef Zotter Chocolatier, Founder of Zotter GmbH

Looking out of the small airplane window, Josef Zotter admired the lush green hills and farms of Styria, Austria (for information on Austria, see Exhibit 1), below him. He took another bite of his newest creation, a Peanut & Ketchup chocolate, letting it slowly melt in his mouth. Zotter was on his way home in Austria from his new flagship store in Essen, Germany and excited about the potential for further store openings in the months to come. He had so many ideas for growing his company. Zotter chuckled when he thought about his latest project, a flavor-filled syringea called CHOCOshot oral. Finally consumers were able to taste the soft fillings of Zotter chocolates "without distraction, like licking jam from bread.” He wondered how the media would react to the unconventional idea of using syringes. Provoking people with innovations had been his key to success so far. Tomorrow he was going to Milan to present his latest book at a gourmet festival. As Zotter thought about his various ideas, he wondered what would be the right way to grow his company.

Zotter History

Early Entrepreneurial Years

Josef Zotter, confectioner and cook by training, initially worked as head chef in the restaurant at Hotel Imperial in Vienna, the capital of Austria. Although the Imperial was arguably one of the city’s finest hotels, Zotter left in 1987 to open his first pastry shop in Graz (Austria’s second biggest city). “My head was full of ideas that I wanted to realize quickly and without ifs and buts”, the entrepreneur explained his motivations. In order to maximize the capacity of the company-owned bake house and increase sales, Zotter launched a total of four affiliated...