John Cadbury (1801-1889) founder of Cadbury chocolate

Born on August 12, 1801, in Birmingham, England, John Cadbury grew up following the Quaker ways. And he began his long and rich career as an apprentice to a tea dealer in Leeds in 1818.
After opening a grocer’s shop in Birmingham in 1824, he quickly became known for his homemade drinking chocolate, which was considered a healthy alternative to alcohol – a beverage Quakers believed was bad for society.
 
His vision to expand took root in 1831, when John purchased a warehouse and began manufacturing on a commercial scale.  By 1842, he was selling 16 lines of drinking chocolate in cakes and powders; 11 lines of cocoa in powders, flakes, pastes and “nibs”; and one kind of eating chocolate.

In 1846, John and his brother Benjamin became partners and re-named the company Cadbury Brothers, moving their business to a new factory in 1847. Thriving for many years, the partnership dissolved by mutual consent in 1856.
 
John retired in 1861 and handed over the company to his two sons, Richard and George, who helped expand the Cadbury business to become an industry leader.
Throughout his life, John engaged in civic and social work, and vigorously helped protect the rights of children and animals. He died on May 11, 1889. 

Johann Jacobs (1869-1958) founder of Jacobs coffee

Johann Jacobs was born in 1869 in a rural community outside Bremen, Germany. At age 15, he realized farming was not for him and decided to enter retailing, becoming an apprentice in a Bremen trading establishment.
 
By the 1890s Bremen was booming and Johann was ready to apply his many years of retail experience. So in 1895 he opened a small coffee and tea shop. His ad in the local newspaper announced "impeccable goods at reasonable prices."

Johann soon recognized the potential of roasting coffee himself. And in 1907 he opened his own roasting house, saying it allowed him "to treat each variety according to its character and the structure of the beans, thus giving my coffee its own special taste, a fact which increased my turnover considerably."

Demand for coffee grew and so did Johann’s business. Ready to venture outside of Bremen, Johann founded and then eagerly advertised a new company – Joh.  Jacobs & Co. in December 1926.
 
Johann’s nephew, Walther J. Jacobs, who would later lead the business, began working for him in 1930. A true visionary, Walther created a Jacobs brand image with a black and yellow logo – placing Jacobs coffee far ahead of the competition.

Jean-Romain Lefèvre (1819-1883) and Pauline-Isabelle Utile (died in 1920) founders of LU biscuits

Jean-Romain Lefèvre arrived in the seaside town of Nantes, France, in 1846 where he opened a biscuit factory.  Local citizens enjoyed his unique cookies and pastries, often made from local ingredients.
 
In 1850, Jean-Romain married Pauline-Isabelle Utile.  They combined their lives – and their surnames – and Lefèvre-Utile biscuits were born.
 
The couple opened a charming new retail store in a building adjacent to their factory.  By 1880, the Lefèvre-Utile factory employed 14 workers.
 
And in 1882, Lefèvre-Utile biscuits won a gold medal at the Industrial Fair in Nantes.  Just one year later, Jean-Romain passed away and Pauline-Isabelle began managing the bakery.

The family business soon passed to Jean-Romain and Pauline-Isabelle’s third son, Louis Lefèvre-Utile.
 
In 1887, Louis and his brother-in-law, Ernest Lefèvre, established the Lefèvre-Utile Company.  They built a new biscuit factory using the most modern baking techniques.  And Louis began advertising to promote LU biscuits.  He hired the best graphic designers and painters, including Firmin Boisset and Alfons Mucha, who created stunning publicity materials.
 
In 1897, LU introduced what would become its signature cookie – Le Petit Êcolier or “The Little Schoolboy.”  It was a delicious scalloped butter biscuit topped with fine chocolate imprinted with a schoolboy figure.
 
By the end of the 19th century, LU biscuits were sold throughout France and several foreign markets.  And the LU factory employed several hundred workers.

Dr. Ludwig Roselius (1874-1943) founder of Hag coffee

Recognized for his scientific ingenuity, Dr. Ludwig Roselius of Bremen, Germany, brewed up the idea to create decaffeinated coffee.
 
For years, Roselius searched for a way to remove caffeine from coffee without diluting the flavorful taste and aroma. And in 1903, he and his research team discovered the secret. Applying new techniques, they used brine-soaked coffee beans that had been plunged into the sea during a storm. Roselius and his team found the beans reacted differently to roasting.  And by 1906, they developed a patented technique that removed 97 percent of the caffeine without removing the flavor.
 
Shortly after, Roselius started a coffee company called Kaffee HAG and introduced his new product in Europe under various names. In France, he named it Café Sanka, a contraction of the French phrase "sans caffeine."
 
In 1923, Roselius introduced the product in the United States as Sanka coffee, founding the Sanka Coffee Corporation in New York. Five years later, General Foods Corporation began distributing Sanka coffee for Roselius, and in 1932, purchased the Sanka Coffee Corporation.
 
And in 1979, General Foods purchased Roselius' original company, Hag AG from his son.

Philippe Suchard (1797-1884) founder of Suchard chocolate

The confectionary business caught Philippe Suchard’s attention early in life.
 
At age 12, he was sent from his hometown of Boudry, Switzerland, to Neuchatel to collect a pound of chocolate from the local apothecary for his ailing mother. The expensive tonic cost six francs – equal to a laborer’s wages for three days.
 
From then on, chocolate became Philippe’s passion. Six years later, in 1814, the teenager eagerly began work as an apprentice confectioner with his older brother in Berne.

In 1824, Philippe left Switzerland to visit the United States. He returned to Neuchatel to open his first confectionery shop the next year.
 
Soon after, he expanded his business, setting up his first chocolate factory on the banks of the Serriere River in Neuchatel-Serrieres.  Powered by a water-wheel and with just one worker, his factory produced 25 to 30 kilograms of chocolate per day.
 
Expansion continued in 1880 when the ambitious entrepreneur opened his first factory abroad, in Lörrach, Germany.
 
By 1883, Philippe’s company was one of the largest chocolate producers in Switzerland, employing about half of the 500 people working in the chocolate industry at the time.

Johan Throne-Holst (1868-1946) founder of Freia chocolate

Known for his modern production technology and concern for workers’ welfare, Johan Throne-Holst began building one of Norway’s most beloved chocolate brands – Freia – in 1892. He bought a small backyard chocolate factory in Rodeløkka, at that time a suburb of Oslo, Norway.  The Freia chocolate factory is still located there today.

By 1898, the company called A/S Freia went public and is turned into a stock company. Growing quickly, it became the most successful chocolate producer in Scandinavia.
 
In 1914, the Freia company received a special national prize for “outstanding products together with pioneering the fields of production technology, marketing and workers welfare.”
  
Johan’s business and humanitarian legacy has inspired many generations. And he set Norway’s standards for a positive work environment, encouraging both professional and personal growth.
 
An industry pioneer, Johan created pleasant surroundings, health services, pension benefits and profit sharing.  He even made art an integral part of the Freia company environment and in 1922, commissioned the painter Edvard Munch to decorate an employee dining room.  And the 12 Munch paintings in the “Freia frieze” remain there today.

Henning Throne-Holst (1895-1980) founder of Marabou chocolate

Continuing his family’s sweet legacy in chocolate, Henning Throne-Holst started a new chocolate company in Sweden in 1916 as a request from his father, Johan Throne-Holst. 

Johan, founder of Norway’s Freia chocolate company, was confident his 23-year-old son could apply what he taught him about the chocolate business and succeed in branching out.
 
So Henning bought two stores in Stockholm, one in Gothenburg and one in Malmö. He opened them under the Marabou name, which was created from the Freia company logo – the Marabou Stork.
 
Henning designed the new chocolate shops similar to a fashionable Freia store opened in Oslo, Norway, in the previous century. That store’s rich interior conveyed an exclusive air, with mahogany paneling, cut-glass chandeliers and velvet seating.
 
By the 1920s, Marabou’s four chocolate stores reflected the company’s commitment to superb quality and service. The stores catered to those who wanted fresh chocolate and elegant hand-packed boxes.
 
Though Freia and Marabou operated separately, they worked closely together over the years. And in 1990, Freia bought Marabou, making Freia Marabou a/s Scandinavia’s top manufacturer of chocolate and sugar confectionery.

Theodor Tobler (1876-1941) founder of Toblerone chocolate

Known for his confectionery creativity, Theodor Tobler was born in Berne, Switzerland, in 1876, where his father, Jean Tobler, had already established his “Specialist Confectioners.”
 
All of the senior Tobler’s candies were made by hand and their popularity provided a profitable business for the family. Theodor and his two siblings took over the confectionery business in 1900, when their father retired at age 70.
 
Theodor and his cousin, Emil Baumann, the company’s production manager, invented the now familiar Toblerone chocolate-nougat candy combination in 1908.
 
On his travels, Emil had discovered white nougat. He and Theodor experimented with it, mixing the white nougat with chocolate to create a confectionery innovation. Theodor called the new candy Toblerone, combining his family name with “torrone,” a nougat candy from Italy. It became an instant sensation.
 
Theodor registered the Toblerone brand name and its manufacturing process with the Federal Institute for Intellectual Property in Berne in 1909.
 
Today, the distinctive triangle shape of Toblerone chocolate can be found in more than 120 countries around the world.