2020 WHO’S WHO IN CONFECTIONERY
Sollich: tailored to quality Sollich offers production solutions from a high-quality portfolio of suppliers for the chocolate, confectionery and baked goods industries and pride themselves in their focus on the customer - Head of Sales and Executive Director, Ralf Schäffer spoke to us about his vast experience working for the company
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Above: Ralf Schäffer, Head of Sales and Executive Director, Sollich
ollich was originally founded in 1920 as a bakery/cake shop in Ratibor, Poland. What first began with the development of the SOLLKOCH, the world’s first vacuum sugar cooking machine, was continuously expanded over generations, with healthy growth and after World War II, the company relocated and started to work with chocolate - before that, it was more of a sugar, candy processing but after World War II, all the focus was on chocolate. Today, their production ranges from forming, extrusion and cutting systems, fully automatic coating systems and cooling tunnels to chocolate tempering machines and moulding systems for confectionery. Head of Sales and Executive Director, Ralf Schäffer, has been with Sollich for the last 34 years – taking over commercial as well as technical responsibilities and supporting a team together with Chairman of the Sollich group, Thomas Sollich, based on his vast knowledge of the market. Ralf told Kennedy’s, “When
Sollich was first founded, it was a small company, but it was a good provider of technical solutions. But most importantly, it has always valued the relationship with the customer and seeing eye to eye with them – meaning that we should be understanding the problems and supporting our customers at all times. That, I think, is our main focus and that we hold very dear to us.”
Above: The SOLLICH Conbar® line
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Kennedy’s Confection May 2020
Ralf studied electrical engineering and began working for small companies that required his skills in a number of varying roles and soon realised that working directly with people was his natural calling. He continues: “In the early stages of my career, electrical software programs were being developed and highly anticipated, but I wanted to work with different people, different ideas and different cultures – that’s what interested me more.” “When I applied to work at Sollich, my experience and skill sets matched the criteria they were looking for. In the beginning, I was in charge of various different markets, but in 2002, I became responsible for the whole sales team and have some influence into other departments now as well.” It is not easy to make modern machines for the confectionery industry. There is the know-how of many decades and the quality of the employees within the company. Given the variety of confectionery products, mass production of the machines is
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