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Peter Marshall Send an email September 19, 2023
7 minutes read

Ritter Sport: Continue to Play A Great Game in Travel Retail

Introduction by: Peter Marshall

It was a great pleasure to catch up recently with Jan Pasold, Managing Director, Global Travel Retail at Ritter Sport. He has worked in Travel Retail for 17 years and is passionate about the business. Not just talking about the company and its products – which continue to excite –  but also its DNA and its core sustainability ethos. The interview covers all of this, but also raises the subject of the industry’s need to redefine its understanding of what true business partnerships should mean.

Peter Marshall (PM):  Welcome to Trunblocked.com, Jan. Just to start, can you briefly remind us of the history of the company.  

Jan Pasold (JP): Ritter was founded in 1912 by Clara and Alfred Ritter and is until today a private family owned company. One of the main objectives of the family is to stay independent.

In 1932 the iconic square was founded by Clara Ritter and that was the time where the brand Ritter Sport got founded. It is a great story to tell but here is only the short version to explain the relation of the square to the brand name. Clara wanted a 100g bar that fits in a sports jacket and doesn’t break like all the rectangular bars at that time. That’s how she came up with the square that fits in the pocket of the sports jacket and with this also the name of the brand was founded: Ritter-Sport.

Another very important year was 1974 when colour TV started in Germany. At this time all chocolate brands were wrapped in brownish wrapper but the family decided to give every variety a colour. That’s why we are today the most colourful and pragmatic chocolate brand. I could tell many more stories about the history and milestones of the company –  there are so many –  but that’s not for this format.

PM:  As a business, you have managed to create a fairly unique niche in travel retail. You have great, colourful expressions for your chocolate ranges and the taste is standout. But how would you define your USP?

 JP: Thank you, we do our best to develop this great brand within travel retail, and with our design relaunch in 2021 and new look, we feel we made a major step forward. I would say you have already named some aspects of the USP of Ritter Sport. From my point of view it is the combination of a high quality product – meaning only the best ingredients –  be it cocoa, nuts, strawberries etc. which give it such a great taste. The format of the product and the colours –  they also convey positivity and happiness.

The last two points in the mix are that it is a family owned business and that ours is certified cocoa. Our commitment to social and environmental responsibility is in the DNA of the family – hence the company and brand. These things combined make Ritter Sport a very unique and high quality product.

PM: Since Covid, you really have been motoring, introducing a series of new, innovative products to your range. Can you briefly walk us through them? 

 JP:  That’s not easy in a short version but I’ll try! It all started with our design relaunch and new look and feel in 2021,  where we also achieved our secondary packaging to be plastic free. With this we also optimized our core assortment. We took all “nice-to-have” SKU’s out and focused on the formats that we know work globally. Therefore the next step was to create more excitement on a regular basis. That’s how we started with our Limited Editions and also further developed our destination sleeves for the Mini Towers

 Last but not least the company has relaunched our Vegan range with new fantastic recipes and varieties and a design relaunch. This inspired and convinced us that we now have the right vegan range to develop a TREX out of it as the more conscious consumers are looking for such products that have a great taste. And there is more to come ☺

PM: And what about Cannes this year? What have you in store for travel retailers?

JP: We are looking forward to the show in Cannes. Our schedules are already packed and we will bring a couple of novelties with us. One example is our Choco Cube Fruity Yoghurt pouch with the fresh and fruity varieties to strengthen and further expand that product group.

We will also have a completely revamped booth using most of the materials that we had from our old booth. Hence we upcycle it. You will experience all other news when visiting us in Cannes ☺

PM: It has been suggested recently that ‘gifting’ is not what it used to be in travel retail. Is that your experience within the confectionery sector? 

JP: Yes, all surveys are showing that gifting has not the same importance as in the past. However, I was always of the opinion that in the end the consumer decides if it is a gift or not and not really the industry. Yes, we as brand owners define it but is it also used like that from a shopper or consumer? Of course there are brands that have predominately gifting boxes. But if I buy myself or my travel group a “gift” we call it sharing or treating myself, hence own consumption. Therefore I was never really convinced by that classification and we always develop our products in a way that they have a “multi-purpose”. In the end, the shopper/consumer decides what the motivation/purpose is to purchase a product.

PM: Airport activations are a core part of your business in promoting and better engaging with consumers. What have you done recently that you are especially proud of? 

JP: It is definitely our “Discover Ritter Sport” activation that we executed in Zurich and Frankfurt in 2022. We wanted to execute it also this year, but it is often quite challenging with airport authorities and their regulations as well as some retailers’ expectations in terms of investment.

So we paused this year but we are already in very good discussions to execute it in 2 locations in 2024. So keep your eyes open while travelling and let us surprise you where you will see our chocolate machine, cocoa tree and get to know Don Choco.

PM:  Sustainability is at the tip of everyone’s lips now. But there is also still a great deal of greenwashing about. I understand that Ritter prides itself on being close to sustainability for over 30 years. Two questions here. First, what sustainable actions have you taken and are about to take? Second, what learnings can you share? 

JP: Oh that is another question that is not easy to answer in a short way. But of course I’ll do my best. So, in 1990 the family founded the first cooperatives in Nicaragua to help the farmers to make a proper living out of growing, harvesting and selling cocoa. This developed to our own cocoa farm that we started in 2012 with 2.500 ha. Nowadays we have 1.Mio. cocoa trees planted which occupies half of the land. The other half is jungle and, until today, many different species of animals and plants are back.

Furthermore, the family has a solar energy company that it founded more than 30 years ago. This means that we use a lot of space on our roofs to produce energy. We also use the heat from the production to heat our offices in Waldenbuch. In our new building we use rain water to flush toilets. Recently we built two wind wheels as our objective is to be a carbon neutral enterprise by 2025 and produce 60% of our energy by ourselves.

Also in the countries from where we source our cocoa, we have established long term partnerships to help the farmers  grow the cocoa in an agroforestry system which helps to protect nature a lot and, of course, helps the farmers to make a proper living. We believe in paying fair prices and bonuses to our partners. Our transport between our main warehouse, co-packing facility and the factory is also done by electric trucks.

So you see the list of actions we have taken is long and we do it in a very transparent way. We are not considered ”greenwashers” as we aren’t. It is in the DNA of the Ritter Family to do business in harmony with man and nature. So the learning I can share is, it requires conviction, dedication, investments and patience. Hence long-term thinking as this is a process and we can’t change such complex things overnight.

PM: One final question, Jan. If there are three messages you want to communicate to the travel retail business, what would they be? 

JP: There is basically one key message I’d like to share. We are working in a very unique environment and have the privilege to work with people from all over the world and that our shoppers and consumers are in a different mind-set when reaching the stores compared to domestic. Therefore stakeholders in our business should really learn that working together in a fair way and create value, not destroy it. Yes, it is business and yes it is all about money. But it is also Travel Retail and not domestic. So the competition within our industry should be taken more like in sports and not like in domestic, with big threats of delisting or that airports only see big concession fees. But in the end the consumer has to pay the price. So in order to be an attractive and exciting marketplace, we have to finally think and act radically different than in the last 20 years. And the size of the company should not dictate what we all do because we all know the spirit of our small, but global industry.

So why don’t we also talk business like we do when we meet on trade shows or other events. Let’s challenge each other, let’s discuss, let’s listen to each other, let’s inspire each other, let’s get to the best ideas to revolutionise our industry!

But it only works if we are fair to each other and understand that we have an environment that requires true partnership in order to get the best results for all of us. That means airports, retailers and brands need to become true partners and sit on one table and that the power and creativity of a brand should have a higher value than the size of the budget. I know it sounds naive, utopic or idealistic, but after almost 17 years in this industry I still believe it is possible to do business in a much better and fair way than the old fashioned game that was always played with threats and pressure and power and make only one party happy in the end. But then it is not the best result for the traveller. Our industry has the possibility to engage differently because it is so unique – but only if we all are willing to work for something bigger than our own ego!

 

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Peter Marshall Send an email September 19, 2023
7 minutes read

Peter Marshall

Founder: trunblocked.com/Marshall Arts
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