Bühler launches new chocolate challenge for start-ups exploring innovative production

The Bühler Group has unveiled an innovative New Chocolate Challenge, which has been designed to deliver creative solutions to delivery of the next generation of confectionery, writes Neill Barston.

As the business noted in a Linkedin post, it has confirmed that Steven Hess, Director of Cocoa Science at The Hershey Company has joined its fresh industry initiative as one of its judges.

According to Buhler, its challenge aims to uncover the next big breakthrough in chocolate innovation, against a context of major challenges facing the industry amid climate change and infrastructure problems within conventional supply chains. 

Buhler commented: “Are you a start-up developing alternative or complementary ingredients to cocoa? This is your moment! Submit your idea to the New Chocolate Challenge and have it evaluated by top industry players–including Hershey’s.

“The top three finalists will be invited to an intensive week of product development at the Bühler Chocolate Research and Training Center in Switzerland, finishing with an exclusive tasting event attended by industry leaders.”

Tribute to company’s industry pioneer

In other company news this week, the company paid tribute to one of its key pioneers,  entrepreneur Urs Bühler, who passed away at the age of 82 on August 1, 2025.

As the business noted, with his passing, the group loses a figure who significantly shaped the company as an owner, Chairman of the Executive Board, and Chairman of the Board of Directors since 1970, overseeing more than five decades of its successful development.

During the past five decades, he had help shape its innovation in a number of fields, including extrusion and automation within the business. In 2014, Urs Bühler proactively ensured the succession and continuation of Bühler as a family business by transferring the company shares to his daughters Karin, Maya, and Jeannine Bühler.

Born in 1943 in Uzwil, Urs Bühler spent his youth there. He attended the Kantonsschule am Burggraben in St. Gallen and later studied mechanical engineering at ETH Zurich. Joining Bühler in 1970, he held various positions both domestically and internationally, until being appointed CEO in 1986. In 1994, he also took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors. From 1990, Urs Bühler was the sole owner of the company. Throughout his career, he held numerous external mandates, including the boards of the Swiss Bank Corporation, Sulzer Group, and Winterthur Insurance, and was on the board of Swissmem for 30 years, significantly contributing to Swiss industrial history.

In 2001, as part of succession planning, he transferred operational responsibility of the Group to Calvin Grieder, who also took over as Chairman of the Board in 2014. T

hat same year, Urs Bühler prudently arranged the succession of ownership by transferring company shares to his daughters Karin, Maya, and Jeannine Bühler – the 5th generation of owners. The Uze AG, founded in 1892 and managing the family’s real estate, was already transferred to his daughters in 2011. “We are committed to the legacy of our father and predecessors and will continue to run Bühler as a family business. The strategic focus on innovation, training and development, and sustainability also has our full support,” emphasise the three daughters.

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