The CEO of Ritter Sport has explained why he refused to give in to the pressure to withdraw from the country
Ritter Sport CEO Andreas Ronken, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Waldenbuch, Germany, December 2023 © Getty Images / Marijan Murat/dpa/picture alliance
The CEO of German chocolate giant Ritter Sport has said he received death threats for continuing to do business in Russia amid the Ukraine conflict, but would “make the same decision again.”
Many Western companies cut ties with Russia following the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Those who chose to stay were subjected to a pressure campaign led by Ukrainian politicians and activists who urged them to stop doing business in Russian and, in some cases, threatened boycotts.
In an interview with German news magazine Focus published on Thursday, Ritter Sport CEO Andreas Ronken said his life has been threatened, but did not offer any further details.
“Our decision [to keep making and selling chocolate in Russia] was the right one, and I would make the same decision again,” he told the magazine. “Russia is our second-largest market. If we had left, we would have had to lay off 200 people in our facility in Waldenbuch,” he explained, referring to a factory in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
At the same time, Ritter Sport has donated almost €1 million ($1.08 million) from the money it made in Russia in 2023 for aid to Ukraine. “We can definitely no longer stay out of everything politically. We may soon have the same issue with China,” Ronken told Focus. Nevertheless, his company cannot “only supply countries that behave one hundred percent in accordance with our morals,” he added.
Earlier this year, Ukrainian activist group Vitsche called on two German supermarket chains to boycott Milka chocolate because the company continues to do business in Russia. Parent company Mondelez, which owns the Swiss brand, was blacklisted by Ukraine last year, in an attempt to pressure the American food giant to cut ties with Moscow.
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Despite international pressure, more than half of the businesses that initially announced plans to withdraw ultimately stayed in Russia, the Financial Times reported on Monday. The country’s strong economic performance was reportedly a factor in many cases.
Russia’s GDP grew by 5.4% in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). The International Monetary Fund forecasts that the Russian economy will grow by around 2.6% in 2024.
Speaking at a government meeting this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that international sanctions have failed to tank the country’s economy and have instead achieved “a result that is opposite to what was expected.”
