Y ou have reached your destination,” says the voice of the navigation system. The company headquarters of Ritter Sport, the world-famous chocolate bar manufacturer, at Alfred-Ritter-Straße 25 in Waldenbuch. In Swabia, the home of Daimler, Porsche and Bosch, the navigation system can orient itself around the name of company founders. For here, the streets are often called after successful entrepreneurs and not after poets or thinkers. Alfred Ritter is one such entrepreneur. In 1912 he and his wife Clara set up a chocolate and confectionary factory in Stuttgart, which is only 15 kilometres away from Waldenbuch; the company moved to Waldenbuch in 1930. In 1932 Clara had the idea which was to put the company on the road to success. “Let us make a chocolate bar that fits into the pocket of every sports jacket without breaking and is still the same weight as the normal long bar.” That square chocolate bar was given the name Ritter’s Sport Schokolade. A trademark was born.
Square. Practical. Good. The slogan created in 1970 is known all over the world today and stands for the brand’s unique features: square in shape; practical due to the original snap-wrapper which enables it to be opened with one snap; good because of the taste and the top-quality raw materials used. And in the course of the decades, Ritter Sport has also shown that a one-product company can repeatedly reinvent itself. In 1974 it produced the “Bunte Palette” (Colourful Range). Each of the today more than twenty different varieties, from whole nut to bio, has its own colour. In 1982 the Minis came onto the market, and in 2008 Ritter Sport Bio. Today, a new taste is launched every season. The 2010 Summer Hits are called Stracciatella, Wild Berry Yoghurt and Peach-Maracuja Yoghurt.
Swabian. Family-oriented. Dedicated. Today, in the year 2010, Ritter Sport is still a typical Swabian family company. Alfred T. Ritter, grandson of the founder, is the third generation to manage the company, which is almost one hundred years old. Every day, 800 employees exclusively produce 2.5 million of the cult chocolate bars at the headquarters in the town of Waldenbuch, which has a population of 8,000. 30% of these bars are exported to 91 countries. And in addition to their actual production business, the company is also actively involved in environmental, social and cultural affairs. Since 1990, Ritter Sport has operated a Fair-Trade initiative for organically growing cocoa beans in Nicaragua. In 2002, the company had its own combined heat and power unit built on site and today it covers 30% of the electricity and 80% of the company’s heating requirements. Ten years ago, the lowest wage groups were done away with, and men and women employees earn the same salary for the same work. Moreover, since 2005 the Ritter Sport Museum has existed right next to the production plant.
Medicine. Art. Ideals. Alfred T. Ritter is a typical Swabian, innovative and enterprising, but also modest and down to earth. And yet he is still a bit different. Ritter’s career has been influenced by the 1960s student movement and the Chernobyl disaster. He studied economics and psychology and initially practiced as a therapist in Heidelberg. In the late 1980s he founded a conservationist company which to this very day still produces alternative heating systems. In 2005 he took over the management of Ritter Sport from a meantime non-family manager after differences of opinion regarding expansion strategy concepts. Marli Hoppe-Ritter, his sister, is chairperson of the Advisory Board. She studied law in Heidelberg and was head of the association which in 1976 opened one of the first self-administered women’s shelters in Germany. She also collects art, with a particular focus on the square. Since 2005 the meantime 700 works in that collection have been shown in different exhibitions at the Museum Ritter. Sister and brother are united by the idea of a better world.
Employees. Quality. Awards. Alfred T. Ritter is sitting in one of the numerous conference rooms on the ground floor of the main administrative building. He has long greying hair and is wearing jeans today. Business talk is not his thing. He prefers to discuss people, ideas or products. Or the fact that he pays a lot of attention to the well-being of his employees. “If they are content, I am also content.” Or the fact that despite difficult framework conditions, narrower margins, the rising prices of raw materials and hot summers, the product has been further improved. “Today, Ritter Sport produces just-in-time, which is to the advantage of both freshness and taste.” And the fact that in 2010, Ritter Sport was again voted a “Top Brand”.
Duty Free. Morocco. China. Also at the conference table is Olaf Wilcke, Business Director International. His favourite word is “unique”“. Apart from the company product’s three original features, the confectionary professional quickly identified further unique selling points. For example, the thickness of the bar, which is due to its square shape. “This allows us to use whole nuts, which has a definite impact on the taste.” Advantage: Ritter. Today, the chocolate bar is available in duty-free shops in the oases of Morocco and on the Himalaya. But that is by no means the end of the success story. “China has a per capita consumption of 0.1 kilo. In Germany it is 8.5 kilos. There is still potential there,” says Wilcke. And that is the where Ritter Sport, Waldenbuch, is heading.
