SWISS is known for offering free chocolate to all passengers. Their primary agreement is with Chocolate Frey, which supplies 17 million pieces of chocolate to the airline every year.
However, for premium passengers, SWISS distributes Läderach pralines through a partnership that they’ve had for about 10 years. Well, SWISS is dropping the brand — apparently the decision was made in November 2019, and you can expect to no longer see the chocolates on SWISS flights as of April 2020.
What’s the cause of this change? Controversial comments from the CEO of Läderach, Johannes Läderach. The CEO is a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage and abortion.
He’s a member of the group “Christianity for Today,” which his father is the president of. The group also opposes sex before marriage, pornography, and Harry Potter, natch.
But don’t worry, folks, he insists he’s not homophobic, because he has gay employees and doesn’t ask them about it:
“I understand it if people value a woman’s right to choose more than an unborn child’s right to life. But I ask for understanding for my opinion. I’m allowed to have a different opinion.
No one at Läderach is homophobic – neither the management nor the staff. We have homosexuals working for us. We don’t ask about it. Läderach has a zero-tolerance policy regarding discrimination.”
This comes to mind:
The chocolate company’s head of marketing confirmed that the decision was made due to negative coverage of the chocolate company, while a SWISS spokesperson didn’t go into detail, other than saying that factors when choosing suppliers include “the quality, various economic factors and the brand fit.”
Swiss magazine Beobachter claims headlines like “Chocolate king fights against abortion and homosexuals” were too much for the airline to ignore, noting that this is “clearly too much for the airline, which has many gay crew members.” I’d say it goes way beyond that…
Kudos, SWISS!
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