Barry Callebaut

Cacao Barry

Cacao Barry was founded in Hardricourt, France, by Charles Barry, an Englishman with an interest for exploring Africa in 1842. During Barry's travels to Africa, he came in contact with cocoa beans, a major component in the production of chocolate, which the company began producing in 1911.

In 1952, Cacao Barry began to produce gourmet chocolate. In 1992, the holding company Société Centrale d'Investissement (SCI) gained control of Cacao Barry and transferred 49% of its capital to Compagnie Nationale à Portefeuille (CNP), an investment fund in financier Albert Frère's group. SCI's management approach favoured greater penetration of the British market, with the consequent opening of a production site in the United Kingdom.

Callebaut

Callebaut was a Belgian company, founded by Eugenius Callebaut as a brewery in Wieze in 1850. The brewery began producing chocolate bars in 1911 under Octaaf Callebaut, using the same factory, and soon switched entirely to chocolate production. It began making couverture chocolate in 1925. Following Octaaf Callebaut's death, his daughter Marie and his nephew Charles took over the company in 1945. After World War II, the production of coverture chocolate became the company's core business, complemented by a limited range of bars.

In the 1950s, Callebaut, which was still a family-run business, began exporting its products to other European as well as North American markets, leveraging the fact that Belgian chocolate had earned an excellent reputation for its quality. By 1965, Callebaut coverture chocolate was being sold across Europe and in other parts of the world. In 1981, Interfood, a subsidiary of Tobler-Suchard, bought the company. In 1983, Klaus Jacobs acquired full control of Interfood and became an international confectionery leader. After a series of acquisitions in the industry, the company merged with the US company Kraft in 1987, creating Kraft Jacobs Suchard.