Business: Cocoa Lady

A hustling little manufacturer of candy bars, cocoa and chocolate is Ambrosia Chocolate Co. of Milwaukee which employs 155 people. Its president is a plump, smiling German named Gretchen Schoenleber who inherited the concern from her father. Miss Schoenleber, middle-aged and businesslike, regularly puts her black low-heeled brogues under her desk before 8 o’clock every morning. Once a stenographer, later general manager of Ambrosia chocolate, she rules her executives with a firm German hand, is fond of saying: “The fact I’m a woman makes no difference at all.”

Last week, without any fanfare whatsoever, Gretchen Schoenleber became the first woman member of any U. S. exchange when she bought a seat on the New York Cocoa Exchange for $2,700. She announced that she would not leave Milwaukee to do her trading in Manhattan although the Exchange requires all trading to be done by members in person. Instead she will take advantage of Exchange rules which permit a member’s agent to buy cocoa beans through a floor broker at a saving of 50% of commission. Said Cocoa Trader Schoenleber: “Every leading chocolate company has a seat on the Exchange. Ours was taken out in my name simply because I happen to be the principal officer of our company.”