Zotter Chocolate opens in China with the help of a former MU student

With the help of a former Modulian, Austria’s premiere chocolate manufacturer Zotter has expanded their cocoa-based enterprise eastward with the first overseas establishment of the family-owned company based in Riegersburg in the province of Styria.

Their unique concept is to produce the chocolate from ‘bean to bar’ by using only organic and fair trade raw products. They do every step of the process on site in Styria, from roasting the coffee beans, to churning out the cocoa butter, to mixing together fabulous concoctions such as Arabian dates with mint and wild berries with vanilla, to wrapping up and packaging the finished bar.

Julia Zotter, daughter of founder Josef Zotter, is responsible for opening the Shanghai, China branch, bringing their extensive product line of artisanal chocolate to the 23 million strong metropolis. At her right hand is Shanghainese former MODUL Tourism School and University student Yi Ji, who runs Zotter’s Chocolate Theatre and gives tours in German, English, and Chinese.

Her passion for chocolate started when she heard on Austrian radio that Zotter was planning to open an establishment in her hometown of Shanghai. This was in early 2013, when she was in her last semester at MU.

Yi took a very proactive path to land herself a dream job, ‘’I immediately realized this was a great opportunity and called Zotter at their Styrian headquarters, introducing myself as Shanghainese fluent in German and English, and willing to be part of the development of this exciting project in China. The Zotter family liked the idea and hired me for training at their manufactory in Riegersburg. As I am responsible to introduce our visitors to the world of cocoa and chocolate made following the principles of fair trade and handcraft, I of course needed to perfectly understand the process myself.’’

Josef Zotter, who has created more than 300 types of hand-scooped chocolates, chocolate coated fruits, drinking chocolate, and many other types of chocolate delights, famous both in Austria and a growing global audience, invested 6 million Euro in the Shanghai outlet and put Yi in a top position. She is the manager of the Chocolate Theatre, a multimedia ‘tasting expedition’ built almost one-to-one with their already popular Austrian factory experience, where customers learn about chocolate production and, of course, get to taste it.

Zotter Shanghai currently has a staff of 40 since opening in May of this year, and in full operation, will open 7 days a week with a staff of 80. Currently, all products shown in the Theatre and sold in the shop are produced at the home manufactory in Riegersburg and shipped over, however, in the near future they plan to produce chocolate directly in Shanghai, using the same ‘bean to bar’ principles employed in Austria. At present customers can make their own ‘DIY chocolate’, which is already very popular with the Shanghainese.

Congratulations to Yi on her success in this new Austro-Chinese endeavor!