“Square. Practical. Good” – ask any German child what product this catchy advertising slogan refers to and they will say: ‘Ritter Sport’, the name under which the popular chocolate made by the Alfred Ritter Company in the Baden-Württemberg town of Waldenbuch is best known.

Advertising slogans come and go. But some of them last for years. And a select few become internationally famous – like the Ritter Sport slogan: “Square. Practical. Good.”. In Moscow it comes out as “Kvadratny. Praktichkny. Otlichny.”, in Paris “Carré. Practique. Gourmand.”, in Madrid “Cuadrado. Practico. Bueno.“, in Rome “Quadrato. Practico. Buono.” and in Northern Europe “Kvadratisk. Praktisk. God.” But a literal translation didn’t work so well in English, so in London the chocolate is advertised as “The Handy Chocolate Square”.

The striking square shape was invented as long ago as 1932 and has been protected by patent ever since. It was Clara Ritter who came up with the idea; she and her husband had founded the company together in 1912. They wanted to produce a bar of chocolate “which would fit into the pocket of any sports jacket without breaking, but would be the same weight as the conventional long bar”. At first, the square shape was just one of many the company used. But from 1960 onwards it was more or less only the square bars that were produced and in 1970 the famous slogan: “Square. Practical. Good.” was launched. Since 1974 the bars have come in a range of colors: each variety of chocolate has its own color. Two years later saw the next piece of innovation with the introduction of the snap-open pack, which made opening and resealing the pack much easier. The square shape, the ‘color-coded’ varieties and the snap-open pack are what still distinguish the “Ritter Sport” brand today. The company has around 800 employees and in 2005 it sold 284 million euros worth of chocolate.

Economic success is one thing; entrepreneurial responsibility is something else. Ritter Sport is probably unique in this respect. The company is known for its commitment to sustainable growth and environmentally-friendly production. The wrapping foil is made of fully recyclable polypropylene, the factory in Waldenbuch has its own combined heat and power plant and any extra power required comes exclusively from renewable sources. For many years the company has sponsored an agricultural and forestry development project in Nicaragua known as “Cacaonica”. And in autumn 2005 a new building was opened in Waldenbuch which houses the Ritter Museum, a museum café and the RitterSport chocolate store. In the chocolate store there is an interactive exhibition on the theme of chocolate, a chocolate workshop for creative kids and a big chocolate sales area. The Ritter Museum is currently hosting an exhibition of some of the almost 600 pieces on the theme of ‘the square’ by major artists of the 20th and 21st centuries which Marli Hoppe-Ritter, the grand-daughter of the company’s founder, has collected over the last decade. The exhibition – hardly surprisingly – is called simply “Square”.

Contact:

Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG
Alfred-Ritter-Str. 25
Postfach 1240
D-71008 Waldenbuch

Tel.: +49-7157-97 0
Fax.: +49-7157-9739 9
E-Mail: info@ritter-sport.de
Internet: www.ritter-sport.de