It is the end of a long-running saga: chocolate producer Galler is now fully owned by the Qatari royal family Al Thani. Founder and CEO Jean Galler steps aside and is succeeded by Salvatore Iannello, the production remains in Liège.
Further Qatarisation
Already in 2006, the Qatari royal family entered the company and since 2011 they own the majority of the shares. Earlier this year, it was announced that the family would also take over the remaining shares “in the long run”, but that moment has now arrived already. The final takeover has no direct consequences for the company itself: the production remains in Vaux-sous-Chèvremont (in the Belgian province of Liège) and also the management remains entirely Belgian. Jean Galler, who founded the company in 1976, sees this as the right time to step aside and give Salvatore Iannello, who was already general manager between 2006 and 2011, the reigns.
Galler employs 170 people and produces 2000 tons of chocolate per year, reaching a turnover of 30 million euros. The products are sold all over the world through a network of 3000 sales outlets. It is not the first Belgian chocolate producer to come into foreign hands: in recent years brands like Guylain and Godiva came under South Korean and Turkish control.
