GB Glace facts for kids
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Formerly
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Glace-Bolaget |
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| Predecessor |
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| Founded | 1942 |
| Products | Ice cream |
| Parent | Unilever |
GB Glace is the biggest ice cream company in Sweden. It started in 1942. The company was first called Glace-Bolaget until 1991. Later, a large company called Unilever bought GB Glace completely in 1996. Unilever is from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Contents
The Story of GB Glace
How Ice Cream Started in Sweden
People have been making ice cream in Sweden since the late 1920s. The first company to make ice cream in Stockholm was called Choklad-Thule. Another company, Fyris, started making ice cream in Uppsala in the early 1930s.
However, Fyris went out of business in 1933. A company called Pressbyrån used to work with Choklad-Thule to deliver ice cream. In 1934, Pressbyrån decided to make their own ice cream. They used Fyris's old machines to start a new company called Alaska Glace in Stockholm.
Another company, Mjölkcentralen (MC), began making ice cream in 1934. This happened after Eric Wilhelm Hanner, whose father worked at Mjölkcentralen, studied ice cream making in other countries. He learned a lot in places like Denmark, Switzerland, and the USA.
Eric convinced the company that making ice cream was a great way to use extra milk fat. Before this, the extra milk fat was just thrown away. The first ice cream factory for MC was built in Stockholm. It was finished in the spring of 1935.
The factory and all its machines cost 245,000 SEK. MC's ice cream was named Puck. It was first sold in March 1935. In the same year, another ice cream company called Igloo Glace started in Märsta. Over time, these companies faced strong competition. This led to Igloo and MC joining together.
Glace-Bolaget is Born
By the end of 1941, there were four main ice cream makers in Stockholm. In 1942, Mjölkcentralen's ice cream part and Choklad-Thule joined forces. They then bought Alaska Glace. The new company was named Glace-Bolaget, which means "The Ice Cream Company."
Eric W. Hanner became the first CEO, or boss, of Glace-Bolaget. He held this important job until he retired in 1972. During World War II, it was hard to get many ingredients for ice cream. Glace-Bolaget had to use less fat and find other things to put in their ice cream.
The year 1955 was a big one for ice cream in Sweden. It became a very popular product for everyone. Glace-Bolaget made more ice cream, but they still had to bring in ice cream from Denmark to meet the high demand. Two years later, in 1957, the biggest ice cream factory in Scandinavia opened in Flen.
- Photos from the Glace-Bolaget customer magazine in 1958.
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Ice cream cakes.
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An ice cream freezer.
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Advertisements for ice cream.
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An ice cream delivery truck.
Growing Bigger: Mergers and Acquisitions
In 1962, Unilever bought two of GB's competitors, Gille-Glace and Trollhätteglass. The next year, in 1963, six ice cream companies owned by dairies joined with GB. These included Arla Glass, Cupglass, Freja Glass, Nordan Glass, and Solglass.
This meant that GB ice cream was now sold in almost all of Sweden. The only part missing was southern Sweden. GB finally came to southern Sweden in 1966. After joining with Malmö Glass and Åhus Glass, GB was selling ice cream all over the country.
In 1972, GB bought Strands Glass AB, which included a factory in Öjebyn. In 1973, Glace-Bolaget joined with Trollhätteglass. This made Unilever a partner in the new company.
The Unilever Era
In 1985, GB's main company, Arla, decided to sell Glace-Bolaget to Unilever. However, Arla kept ten percent of the company's shares. When Unilever took over in 1985, the factory in Flen was completely rebuilt and reopened.
The company was called Glace-Bolaget for a long time. But the name GB Glace was so well known that in 1991, the company officially changed its name to GB Glace. In 1994, GB Glace started selling ice cream in Finland. They also tried to sell in Norway, but it didn't work out there.
At the start of 1996, GB Glace became a company fully owned by Unilever. In 1998, GB Glace changed its logo. The new logo featured a heart, which is used by all of Unilever's ice cream brands around the world.
In 2011, Unilever bought a Finnish ice cream company called Ingman Ice Cream. By 2013, the two companies had fully joined together. This meant that GB Glace stopped being a separate brand in Finland.
What GB Glace Sells
Besides its own well-known ice cream brands, GB Glace now makes many of the same products as other Unilever ice cream companies. For example, they make products similar to those sold by Langnese in Germany.
