Alfred T. Ritter, Chairman of the Board of Alfred Ritter, has been awarded the European Candy Kettle Club Award this year, as it marks its 50th anniversary.
Taking place at the Fritz close to Vienna, Alfred Ritter, his family and representatives of the company celebrated the commemoration and recognition. Former winners of the European Candy Kettle Club Award have included Pedro Lopez and his family, Oliver and Sonja Schindler, Josef Zotter and his daughter Julia, Maljen Fazer and Jan Kolansky and his son Lukas.
Alfred T. Ritter was born in 1953 in Stuttgart, German. He is a shareholder of Alfred Ritter and since 2015, has served as Chairman of the Advisory Board. Alfred Ritter’s history dates back to 1912, when it was first founded by its namesake and his wife, Clara Ritter. The company owns the brand of chocolate bar, Ritter Sport.
As a graduate psychologist who practised as a psychotherapist in Heidelberg in the 1980s, Alfred holds several positions on various foundation and supervisory boards. He is a founding member, main shareholder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Ritter Energie- und Umwelttechnik, founded by Alfred in 1988.
A turning point in his professional career was marked by the reactor catastrophe in Chernobyl in 1986, as a result of which the hazelnut harvest in Turkey, which is important for Ritter Sport products, became unusable due to radiation exposure.
When Ritter Sport entered a difficult phase in the early 2000s, Alfred took over as CEO. He explained: “A company like this is like a family member, you can’t let them down when they’re not doing well.” Thanks to his involvement, the company was set back on the road to success.
Alfred shares the conviction with his sister Marli Hoppe-Ritter that only a company that operates sustainably can have a future. Numerous decisions in recent years and decades reflect this attitude of the Ritter family; from the start of the first cocoa program over 30 years ago to switching to green electricity or the construction of an own combined heat and power plant to the development of an own cocoa farm El Cacao in Nicaragua, these decisions reflect the company’s commitment to sustainability and the planet, which should be a good place for people, nature and cocoa.
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Caitlin Gittins
Editor, International Confectionery
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