[9] Its customers include multinational and national branded consumer goods manufacturers and artisanal users of chocolate (chocolatiers, pastry chefs, bakeries, and caterers).

SCI's management approach favoured greater penetration of the UK market with the consequent opening of a new production site in the United Kingdom.

[18] In the 1950s, Callebaut, which was still a family-run business, began exporting its products to other European and North American markets, leveraging the fact that Belgian chocolate had earned an excellent reputation for its quality.

[18] That same year, Barry Callebaut gained access to the South American market when it bought the Brazilian company Chadler Industrial de Bahia.

In 2002, under the leadership of its new CEO, Patrick G. De Maeseneire, Barry Callebaut acquired the German company Stollwerck for $225 million, thereby taking over the 17 brands under its control, including Sarotti.

[23] Before the year was out, it had acquired FPI-Food Processing International in the United States and KL Kepong Cocoa Products Sdn Bhd in Port Klang Malaysia.

[65][66] On 13 September 2017 NGO Mighty Earth released a report[67] documenting findings that Barry Callebaut purchases cocoa grown illegally in national parks and other protected forests in the Ivory Coast.

The report accused Barry Callebaut of endangering the forest habitats of chimpanzees, elephants and other wildlife populations by purchasing cocoa linked to deforestation.

[71] Barry Callebaut was notified of the findings of Mighty Earth's investigation and did not deny that the company sourced its cocoa from protected areas in the Ivory Coast.

A follow-on report by Mighty Earth dated 7 December 2018 indicated little to no progress had been made in the year since Barry Callebaut and other signatories had committed to the Cocoa and Forests Initiative.

[76] In 2021, Barry Callebaut was named in a class action lawsuit filed by eight former child slaves from Mali who alleged that the company aided and abetted their enslavement on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast.

[73] In 2022, the "Chocolate Scorecard", a comparative overview of production conditions led by Australian universities, attested that the company was "beginning to establish good policies" regarding child labor.

[80][81][82] In January 2024 Barry Callebaut was added to the list of International Sponsors of War for continuing to operate 3 factories in Russia, and having their products used in dry rations of the Russian army.