2004 Zotter is awarded the "Trophée Gourmet" in the "Unusual Products" category.
2005 Trend WKO honours Zotter as "Entrepreneur of the Year."
2006 Zotter wins the "Trigos" award for socially responsible companies for its "Zeichen setzen/A future for Children" chocolate.
2006 Josef Zotter wins the "Eurochocolate Award" for "Best foreign chocolate maker" in Perugia, Italy.
2007 Zotter is awarded the "Primus 2007" prize for Styrian businesses in honour of the company’s successful comeback.
Since 2007 Greenpeace has been monitoring the retail market: Zotter products are consistently rated as "excellent" in social as well as ecological aspects – ingredients, transport, packaging, GM, animal welfare – and are sometimes the only company to achieve that score.
2008 The Zotter Chocolate Manufactory is awarded the "Trigos Steiermark" prize for its "Quality, not Poverty" project in Nicaragua.
2008 Andreas h. Gratze receives the prestigious "iF – Packaging Award" in the packaging design category.
2008 Zotter is awarded the "Best of Organic" award for its hand-ladled chocolate by the Organic Marketing Forum in Warsaw.
2009 Andreas h. Gratze and his Zotter designs are nominated for the Design Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany.
2009 The European Commission selects Zotter as a leading SME in Austria.
2010 Zotter is invited to Harvard, the first Austrian company to be included in the prestigious American university’s curriculum as a case study.
2010 Zotter receives the "Trigos Styria" award for the "Cocoa, Not Cocaine" project. He is also awarded the "Special WIN Prize" by the Sustainability in Business initiative.
2010 Lebensart, the largest Austrian magazine for sustainable living, rates Josef Zotter as the most sustainable entrepreneur 2010.
2010 Zotter is nominated for the "Top of Styria" award by a panel of 300 jurors and comes second in the innovation category.
2010 Zotter’s Choco-Shop Theatre is awarded the "Erlebniswelt Wirtschaft – made in Styria" certificate of quality for Styrian enterprises.
2011 Zotter wins the Academy of Chocolate silver award for best bean-to-bar milk chocolate.
2011 Zotter comes third behind Lindt and Milka in the AC Nielsen Study in the price premium category.
2012 The Chocolate Manufactory is certified as a Climate Alliance Partner.
2012 Zotter is nominated for the European Business Award in the Sustainability category and makes it through to the third selection round: National Finalist. The jury panel’s decision is still pending.
2012 Zotter is rated one of the 8 best chocolate makers in the world. Georg Bernardini tested 271 companies from 38 countries and 2,700 products to write his book "Der Schokoladentester". Zotter was among the top companies and made it to global number 1 in the author’s personal favourites ranking.
In 2013, Zotter is awarded the Kennedy Award in London, for being the "Most Creative Chocolate Company".
2013 Josef Zotter becomes an ambassador for the Caritas hospice.
In 2013, Zotter receives the audience award of the Austrian Leading Companies.
In 2014, Zotter wins the International Chocolate Award (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) in the category of Filled Chocolates.
2015Zotter ranks among the Top 25 - the best chocolatiers in the world. The test included 550 brands and 4,000 products from 70 countries.
"Zotter is and will remain at the top of the world-best chocolate manufacturers and by far the most innovative chocolatier of all." (Chocolate – the reference standard 2015, p. 839)
The Top 25 are awarded 6 cocoa pods. 6 cocoa pods stand for "Extraordinary quality of all products. Extremely rare to no deviations in the outstanding quality of the products." (Chocolate – the reference standard 2015, p. 137)
Zotter is the only producer from Germany and Austria in the Top 25 and still the only one to produce solely in organic and fair-trade quality.
2015 Josef Zotter is awarded "Entrepreneur Of The Year", by the audit & consulting organisation EY at an award gala at the Hofburg in Vienna. He wins in the category of Trade & Consumer Goods.
2015 Zotter´s "Chocolate Shop" wins first price and is labelled the "Best Sweet Shop" in Styria.
2016 Zotter´s restaurant "Eco-Essbar" ranks among the most sustainable restaurants in Austria.
2016 Zotter´s nature experience restaurant "Eco-Essbar" receives the award of "child- and family-friendly restaurant 2016/2017".
2016 Zotter wins the Academy of Chocolate Award 2016 in London. Zotter submitted 17 chocolates and was awarded 2 x gold, 8 x silver and 5 x bronze, 15 times in total. A unique result for Zotter, next to top chocolatiers such as Amedei, Michel Cluizel and Demarquette.
2016 Zotter receives the "Winner of Passion“ award.
2016 Zotter is nominated for the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2016 in Monte Carlo.
2016 Zotter wins the Brand Life Award 2016, awarded by the European Brand Institute.
2017 Zotter ranks among Austria's strongest brands 2017, published by Young & Rubicam.
2017 Zotter receives an award for the Best Environmental Declaration 2017.
2017 Zotter achieves 2 silver and 3 bronze awards with dark Labookos at the Academy of Chocolate Award 2017 in London.
2017 Zotter is nominated for the Österreichischer Klimaschutzpreis 2017 (the Austrian Climate Protection Award). An expert jury selects his “Environmental Protection as a Concept for Success“ as one of the three best projects in the corporate category.
2017 Zotter’s "Labooko Vintage 2016" wins bronze in the dark chocolate category at the influential Northwest Chocolate Festival 2017in Seattle – among 200 entries in total. The Labooko Vintage 2016 was created jointly by Josef Zotter and his daughter Julia to celebrate the company’s 30-year anniversary using cocoa beans that had been dry-aged for an entire year.
2018 Winner of the 2018 Energy Globe Award Austria
2018 11 awards at the 2018 Academy of Chocolate Awards in London (for Hand-scooped Chocolates, Labookos, Drinking Chocolates and Nougsus)
2018 Zotter is one of the strongest brands in Austria and landed in 12th place in Young & Rubicam’s global market study, on the heels of giant international brands like Google, Amazon, WhatsApp and even ahead of Apple and Ikea!
2018 The TOP-GEWINN-Image-Ranking 2018 shows Zotter shooting up the rankings to 14th place (from last year’s 86th). Zotter made up 72 ranks, which makes us Aufsteiger des Jahres 2018 (shooting star of the year) in the image department.
2018 Zotter is nominated for theEuropean Business Awards for the Environment 2018-2019 (EBAE).
2018 Zotter receives the Austria‘s Leading Companies (ALC) Special Award for the Corporate Integration of People with Disabilities. Josef Zotter: "As a family business, I see integration on every level not just as our responsibility but also as one of our strengths. Maximising humanity is our biggest asset, and it is our obligation to nurture the strongest as well as people who have been disadvantaged in life!"
2019 EVE READER’S CHOICE 2019 – ButterCaramel. Several thousand eve readers chose their favourite organic products. Zotter’s ButterCaramel was ranked among the 20 most popular items.
2019 "People of the Year 2018" – Josef Zotter wins the Kleine Zeitung newspaper’s extraordinary lifetime achievement award for his work as a visionary and contrarian.
2019 Tavoletta d‘Oro in Italy, Zotter wins the Tavoletta d’Oro 2019 with its Labooko Brazil and joins the stars of the chocolate scene like Amedei and Domori.
2019Zotter is one of the most popular brands in Austria: Zotter among the top 10! According to the Brand Asset Valuator (BAV) 2019, some of the 10 most important brands in Austria are internet giants Google, Wikipedia, WhatsApp, Microsoft and – as a sweet little surprise – Zotter in 9th place.
2019 The prestigious European Candy Kettle Award 2019 is given out by the European Candy Kettle Club to products of extraordinary quality and innovation, and in 2019 this award goes to Zotter chocolates, previously only bestowed onto big players like Ferrero, Lindt & Sprüngli and Valrhona.
2019 Josef Zotter is awarded the Grand Order of Merit of the Austrian state of Styria.
2019 Josef Zotter has been awarded the 13th annual Walter Scheel Medal to honour his exceptional contribution to the development of our great European chocolate culture.»He is one of the world’s best chocolate producers and shows that competence and top artisanal product quality are not synonymous with an elitist approach and that fairness and sustainability can be much more than just marketing speak. With his highly innovative product range, his “bean to bar” processes and exclusively organic and fair trade produce, Josef Zotter impressively demonstrates how successful ethical business practices can become in the 21st century.«
2020Styrian Panther of Tourism for Zotter's oeuvre.
2020Best Employer in Styria: Zotter is the overall winner.
2020 Zotter sweeps the board with 15 submissions resulting in 11 gold and 4 silver medals at the 3rd International Pastry Competition, organised by the Austrian National Food Industry Guild. Zotter was represented with Hand-scooped Chocolates, pure Labookos, bonbons, Mixing individual chocolates and the new Squaring the Circle collection.
2020 Josef Zotter is awarded the "Top of Styria Award" as one of the best entrepreneurs in the country. The 300-headed expert jury from the fields of economy, science and business journalism has chosen the TOPs of Styria 2020. Josef Zotter received an award for his life's work and is happy about the coveted trophy: a piece of the Dachstein, which symbolically fits summiteers.
2020 The renowned gourmet magazine Falstaff presents the best chocolate makers in its December-February issue and declares Zotter's Labooko 50% Nicaragua one of the best milk chocolates in the world.
2020 Zotter achieves 1st place in three categories in the market test "Chocolate 2020": "Innovation", "Recommendation" and "Importance for Austria". In the overall ranking, Zotter lands in the top 3 brands in the industry.
2021 Zotter takes first place in the overall ranking as "Best Employer in Styria" in the market study by the Market Institute/Linz for the second time in a row.
2021 Zotter wins the Trigos Steiermark for the Zotter Experience World as an exemplary, holistic CSR project.
2021 Zotter is awarded the AUSTRIAN SDG AWARD 2020 sustainability prize in the category "corporate".
2021 Zotter is named a "mid tier hero" by the independent civil society initiative "Lobby der Mitte".
2021 In the Market Institute's "Chocolate 2021" market test, Zotter emerges as the best in the industry in the "Innovation" dimension out of all 31 chocolate brands surveyed and thus receives the "Quality Award Innovation 2021" in the "Chocolate" sector.
2022 Josef Zotter is honoured by the Austrian Marketing Club as "Marketing Leader of the year" for his life's work.
2022 Zotter takes first place in the overall ranking as "Best Employer in Styria" in the market study by the Market Institute/Linz for the third time in a row.
2023 "Best Organic Product 2023" award for Strawberry & Cashew from the Cheery & Nuts range. Awarded by the popular German magazine Schrot & Korn.
2023 Zotter wins the Animal Welfare Award of the Province of Styria, for particularly animal-friendly construction in rural areas.
2023 Zotter is awarded the Environmental Management Award in Berlin for the best strategy for sustainable corporate development.
2024 According to the "Brands Excellence" study by the market research institute Pichler-Jessenko, Zotter ranks second among the best-known Styrian brands and is even in first place in the "Most sustainable Styrian brand" category.
2024 Zotter receives the Primus Award, the Kleine Zeitung's major business prize, and is honoured in the ‘Living Sustainability’ category .
2024 Zotter wins the EUSALP Energy Award at the annual international forum in Slovenia. Under the motto "Energy transition in SMEs ’, companies that have taken significant initiatives to reduce their energy consumption and are thus considered pioneers in the transition to clean energy are honoured.
