Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut has appointed Gilles Leclère as the manager of its chocolate factory in Suzhou, China, which opened on yesterday (9 January).

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Leclère, 36, has been with Callebaut since 1999 and supervised the construction of the Suzhou plant which is located around 100 kilometres from Shanghai. 


He has held other posts with the company in Ghana and the US having spent the first part of his career as a project engineer with French petroleum group, Total.


In his new post in China, Leclère is joined by two other French nationals, Jean-Marc Bernelin and Hugues Pouget, both pâtissiers-confiseurs and who have been appointed technical advisers.

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