Bars, pralines, chocolates, dragées and so much more: Zotter Schokolade (Zotter) produces more than 500 different chocolate products in Riegersburg, Austria, made possible by two Ishida multihead weighers to ensure perfect pack weights. All Zotter’s chocolates are fair trade and organic, designed to create a truly exceptional taste experience. This is why the company is known among chocolate connoisseurs around Europe and beyond. In its modern factory.

Zotter invested in two Ishida multihead weighers to weigh a wide variety of chocolate confectionery, one for packing into bags and one into boxes. The deviation from the target weight per pack is less than 0.5%, with the multihead weighers able to meet target weights of 20g-130g at speeds of 20-30 packs per minute. The fast set-up, easy cleaning and easy operation of the Ishida weighers allow the customer to make fast changeovers to maintain a high level of flexibility.

Pumpkin seed oil and Schilcher rosé wine is often what comes to mind when people think of the Styria region of Austria. However, another culinary specialty increasingly being associated with this area is Zotter Schokolade. Based in Riegersburg, 50km east of Graz, the celebrated chocolate maker has been voted “one of the world's best chocolatiers”.

The company, founded by Josef Zotter in 1987 and now run by his daughter, Julia, employs around 230 people at the site, turning approximately 1,000 tons of chocolate per year into more than 500 products, with an impressive array of chocolate flavour innovations.

Around 300,000 visitors come to the Zotter Chocolate Factory every year, which includes a glass-walled tour of the production area, a petting zoo for endangered farm animals and a cinema showing the story of cocoa cultivation.

Up to 60,000 chocolate bars are produced and packed each day in Riegersburg. Products include numerous filled, handmade chocolates, single-origin chocolates such as "Labooko“ and exotic flavours such as mango-chilli, sage marzipan, or cardamom, all demonstrating that Zotter does not really do ‘ordinary chocolate’.

The company also produces pralines, drinking chocolate, chocolate popcorn, and Ballero dragées (chocolate-covered fruits and nuts). All ingredients come from certified organic farms and are processed according to fair trade principles.

The "bean-to-bar" concept applies to all products. Production manager Gerald Prasch explains: "We are among very few quality chocolatiers globally who handle all chocolate production processes in-house – from roasting the cocoa beans to rolling and conching, to shaping and packaging."

This wide chocolate portfolio demands a high degree of flexibility. Each machine must be able to process, weigh, and pack many different products. One of Ishida’s multihead weighers in the production area illustrates this well. The 14-head weigher is used for packing chocolate-filled popcorn, as well as coffee and "light bulbs" (chocolate in easily portioned, miniature light bulb shapes). The weigher is installed above a Kopas VFFS bagmaker and is fed by hand, purely because of the large number of daily product changeovers.

Under the German Prepackaged Goods Legislation, individual packs may fall below the declared pack weight, as long as this is compensated by other packs being “over weight” to then meet an average. However, this does not align with Zotter's quality standards, as Gerald Prasch says: "If the packaging says 100 grams, we guarantee at least 100 grams." On the other hand – chocolate is a valuable product so the pack weight should be tightly controlled. Ishida’s multihead weigher meets Zotter’s requirements, performing accurately, consistently and efficiently at typically 20 to 30 weighments per minute and with a standard deviation of less than 0.5% from the target weight.

When selecting the multihead weigher, Zotter's team also paid close attention to ease of setup and cleaning, knowing that all contact parts must be cleaned after each of the many product changeovers. According to Zotter’s operative team, the two installed Ishida weighers are ideally suited for this requirement.

The second Ishida multihead weigher, a 10-head model, at Zotter handles mainly Balleros, which are dried fruit and roasted nuts (for example cherry, ginger, physalis, or pistachio), rolled in chocolate, nougat, or colourful fruit coatings and filled into 100g boxes.

Because Balleros and similar chocolates are in consistent high in demand, Zotter packs them on a fully automated line. First, the carton is erected and lined with a parchment paper, which is inserted by a robot. The 10-head Ishida weigher weighs the Balleros into typically 6,000 to 7,000 boxes per day, with two or three product changeovers.

Despite the differences in the level of automation between the two production areas, both Ishida multihead weighers perform well, meeting Zotter’s exacting demands. Gerald Prasch concludes: “We are very satisfied. The service requirements are minimal, and the weighing results are precise. Therefore, both Ishida multihead weighers are meeting our high quality standards.”