A Zotter chocolate factory in Czech Republic

Zotter chocolate factory in Czech Republic
We were on the tour in Zotter chocolate factory in Styria. We were fascinated and we thought about a similar project in Czech Republic. Does it sound crazy?

A brief history of chocolate & situation in Czech republic
"A little chocolate is like a love affair - an occasional sweet release that lightens the spirit. A lot of chocolate is like marriage - it seems so good at first but before you know it you've got chunky hips and a waddle-walk." - Linda Solegato

Chocolate flows through the history of mankind. Many nations and civilizations plant the cocoa trees already at the 5th century. But at the very beginning just hot drinks were made from the miracle fruits of this tree; these drinks were served for the high society. The first attempts of chocolate bars, which we know nowadays, date back to the 17th century to London. However, the real success came in the late 19th century. This time the first Czech chocolate factories are founded – Rüger, Zora in Olomouc or Maršner factory which was the headstone of Orion. These factories still exist, but they were transformed to a part of an international group Nestlé. Earlier even the cocoa beans were roasted in Zora factory, but then it became cheaper to get them imported.

Today we can find couple of small chocolate companies in Czech republic, which make food products for orders (Fikar Kuřim, Chocogastro Pustiměř, Carletti Vizovice, Kamila Chocolates), but mainly they do not produce their own chocolate - they use German, Italian, French and other European ones. None of them are organic or have the fair trade certification. In Czech shops foreign labels as Rapunzel, Vivani or Mascao are sold, which defines the fair standards for all participants in chain. And the consumption of chocolate in general is getting higher every year: every Czech eats more than 5 kilograms per year.



The succes of Zotter chocolate factory
Josef Zotter founded his enterprise in 1999, after the enterpreneurial failure with a café chain. Zotter managed to find the interesting reason why people buy chocolate - they seek experience and added value more than just to eat something sweet. Key elements of his success are:


 * high-quality chocolate empasizing the concept of "bean to bar" and hand-created input in whole process
 * sensational flavours which attract public interest naturally without spending on advertising
 * artistic packages which sell themselves just through the emotions from visual experience

Nowadays over 200.000 visitors come each year to visit "chocolate theatre", experiential trail along the factory, where you can taste enormous number of chocolate flavours and watch all the parts of chocolate-making process. One can think - what is actually sustainable on the Zotter chocolates?


 * economical pillar - Austrian-owned factory, making economical profit for Styria, employing over 100 of local people and attracting tourists to the region


 * social/cultural pillar - enrichment of Austrian food map by specific product, identity-making of the region through well-known brand, ideas of slow food (relishing more than consuming)


 * environmental pillar - all the chocolate is Fair Trade and organic, Zotter takes great responsibility over living conditions of cocoa producers and educates consumers that this is the standard approach

The Idea of Regional Chocolate ©
Our group decided to design a chocolate factory for the Czech market. It is necessary to transfer a model from Austria to our conditions. Of course we cannot think about the same attraction of products for Czechs and Austrians. The company should be built like a strong brand real Czech chocolate factory with principles of sustainability. It should be based on the local production, for each region of Czech Republic will exist a special taste of chocolate with a special interesting pictures on the cover. The pictures will be also very closely connected with a region. They should be attraction specially for tourists but also a very nice gifts for Czechs. They will be sold like a tourist stamps in the tourist centres. And it also be a great presentation for regions abroad.

The taste of chocolate will be connected with a region through a typical production or typical characteristics. There should also be a suppliers of the raw material from the region. For example: for the region of Ostrava it will be a 80% black chocolate, for The Ore Mountains 50% brown chocolate, for the South Moravia grapes chocolate, for The Giant Mountains a blueberries chocolate, a chocolate from Kofola for Krnov, from beer for Plzeň, a chocolate with plum brandy for Zlín, with Becherovka for Karlovy Vary or for the region of Olomouc a typical chocolate with a taste of syrečky. There will a be a special chocolate for Prag, compiled from various tasty pieces.

Every year before Christmas there will come a new flavour. Every city or village should have finally their own chocolate flavour. There will be a competition declared for the best collectors of covers and special prices rof those who collect all the flavours/regions. We want to use cocoa beans at least in fair trade quality and later in organic quality - this will not be main marketing issue, because it is not so important for Czech market right now, but it is an important issue of sustainability. Chocolate have to be financially available for Czechs, but also of adequate price for the higher quality.

Literature

 * General information about chocolate in Czech language http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cokol%C3%A1da
 * 50 quotes about chocolate http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/50-quotes-about-chocolate.html
 * History of Nestlé factory in CZ and SK http://www.nestle.cz/o-Nestle/nestle-v-ceske-a-slovenske-republice/Pages/historie-Nestle-v-CR-a-SR.aspx
 * Olšanský, M. (2010): Charakteristika, vlastnosti a výroba různých druhů čokolád. Bakalářská práce. Zlín: UTB. http://dspace.k.utb.cz/bitstream/handle/10563/12057/ol%C5%A1ansk%C3%BD_2010_bp.pdf?sequence=1
 * Khaire, M. et col. (2011): Zotter - Living by chocolate. Case study, Harvard Bussines school.