Côte d'Or (chocolate) facts for kids
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| Private (1883–1906) | |
| Industry | Food |
| Fate | Sold to Buiswal-Leclef family in 1889, merged with Michiels in 1906 to form Alimenta S.A. |
| Founded | 1883 |
| Founder | Charles Neuhaus |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Belgian chocolate |
| Owner |
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Côte d'Or is a very popular brand of Belgian chocolate. It is currently owned by a big company called Mondelez International. Côte d'Or was started in 1883 by Charles Neuhaus in Schaerbeek, Belgium. He was a chocolate maker.
The name "Côte d'Or" means "Gold Coast" in French. This name referred to the old name of modern-day Ghana. Ghana was a key place where many cacao beans for chocolate came from.
Charles Neuhaus sold Côte d'Or in 1889 to the Buiswal-Leclef family. Later, in 1906, their company joined with another chocolate company called Michiels. Together, they formed a new company named Alimenta S.A.
Over the years, Côte d'Or was bought by different companies. In 1987, Jacobs Suchard bought it. Then, in 1990, Kraft General Foods bought Jacobs Suchard. In 2012, Kraft Foods split off its chocolate brands into Mondelez International. This is how Mondelez became the current owner of Côte d'Or.
People in Belgium love Côte d'Or chocolate. They eat about 600 million Côte d'Or products every year! The Côte d'Or factory in Halle (near Brussels) used to make huge amounts of chocolate. For example, they made 1.3 million small chocolate bars called mignonnettes daily. They also made two million Chokotoffs (chocolate toffees) each day.
Contents
History of Côte d'Or
It all started in 1883 when Charles Neuhaus opened a small chocolate shop. This shop was in Schaerbeek, a part of Brussels, Belgium.
In 1889, Neuhaus decided to retire. He sold his business to Joseph Bieswal and his wife Maria Leclef. They created their own company. Soon after, they joined with Michiels chocolate company. In 1899, they moved into a larger building in Anderlecht. This building was a former mill. Production stayed there until the 1980s.
In 1906, the two companies officially joined. This led to the creation of Alimenta S.A.
That same year, 1906, the famous Côte d'Or logo was created. It showed an elephant in front of a palm tree and three pyramids. Lambert Michiels got the idea for this logo from a stamp from Ghana. The logo has changed only a little bit since then. Today, it shows just one elephant.
The company, Alimenta S.A., grew bigger. In 1908, they built new buildings and bought new machines.
The well-known Côte d'Or chocolate package was created in 1911. It has two chocolate bars in golden-white wrapping. This package is still used today.
In 1929, a candy called Supertoff appeared. It was a type of toffee. The popular Chokotoff (chocolate toffee) came out a few years later, in 1934.
The company kept growing. By 1930, there were 350 workers in Anderlecht. Côte d'Or also started selling its products in other countries. The brand was registered in the United States in 1931. In 1935, the Brussels World Fair helped Côte d'Or become known internationally. This was especially true for the Mignonette, a small chocolate bar made for the event.
World War II and Chocolate
From 1940 to 1946, it was hard to get good quality cocoa beans. This was because of World War II. So, the company temporarily stopped using the Côte d'Or brand. Instead, they used a brand called Congobar.
Also, one of their factories in Marseilles, France, was destroyed in 1943. This happened during the war. Because of this, Côte d'Or stopped making chocolate in Marseille. They focused on the Congobar brand, which used lower quality cocoa.
After the War
After World War II ended, the Côte d'Or brand came back. New products were also created. For example, the chocolate spread called Pastador was launched in 1952.
For the Universal Exhibition in Brussels in 1958, a new praline chocolate bar was launched. It was called "Dessert 58".
In 1965, the company received a special title. It became "Purveyor to the Royal Court of Belgium." This means they supplied chocolate to the Belgian royal family. In the 1970s, the company grew even more. They opened new sales offices in France, the Netherlands (1972), Switzerland, and the UK (1978). A new factory was also built in Seclin in 1974.
The company Côte d'Or of America was started in 1982. In 1984, 101 years after it began, Côte d'Or shares were sold on the Brussels stock exchange. This meant that families no longer had full control of the company. However, the Bieswal, Leclef, and Michiels families still owned most of the shares.
In 1987, two other companies, Nestlé and Jacobs Suchard, tried to buy Côte d'Or. This was a big surprise in Brussels. The families who owned Côte d'Or knew they needed to grow. They needed more money than their current owners could provide.
So, they agreed to sell to Jacobs Suchard. The deal was worth a lot of money. Jacobs Suchard bought 66% of the shares in 1987. They bought all the remaining shares in February 1989. After this, Côte d'Or shares were no longer sold on the stock exchange.
Jacobs Suchard decided to make some changes to the Belgian company. They invested a lot of money to make Côte d'Or a global brand.
Three years later, in 1990, Jacobs Suchard was bought by Philip Morris. Philip Morris put Côte d'Or into its Kraft General Foods group. This group was later renamed Kraft Jacobs Suchard. Côte d'Or remained a high-quality brand within the group.
In 2000, the parent group changed its name to Kraft Foods. In 2012, Kraft Foods split into two companies. One of them was Mondelēz International. Mondelēz is now the owner of Côte d'Or.
In 2013, Mondelēz was the top chocolate company in Belgium. Côte d'Or was their most valuable brand, making up 21% of their chocolate sales.
Ethical Cocoa Sourcing
For a while, there have been questions about how chocolate companies get their cocoa. In 2001, it became known that children were being unfairly treated on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast.
After this, Kraft (the owner of Côte d'Or at the time) and other chocolate companies signed an agreement. It was called the Harkin-Engel Protocol. They promised to work to stop the worst forms of child labor in cocoa farming.
In October 2009, Kraft launched new Côte d'Or dark chocolate products in Europe. These were the first major chocolates to have the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal. This seal means that the cocoa comes from farms that follow good environmental and social practices. These chocolates were first sold in France and Belgium. They contained at least 30% cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.
Kraft also announced plans to use cocoa beans from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms for all its Côte d'Or and Marabou chocolates. They aimed to do this by the end of 2012. This showed their commitment to getting cocoa in a fair and responsible way.
Images for kids
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A 1943 war savings stamp from the Gold Coast. It shows an elephant and palm tree, similar to the Côte d'Or logo.
See also
In Spanish: Côte d'Or (chocolate) para niños
