The colourful world of HARIBO – A company with a tradition rooted in sweets Inaword… “Kids & Grown-ups love it so, the Happy World of HARIBO” – there aren’t many people who haven’t heard our famous and trusted slogan. Yet, no matter how cheerful and light-hearted the advertising message may be, our slogan carries with it a commitment and promise to our customers. A promise which HARIBO has always kept, come what may. It’s not without reason that HARIBO sweets are the most popular among consumers and have been so for many decades! A product so loved and so popular as HARIBO however also makes people curious and gives rise to many questions and queries. Our PR and Marketing departments are always fielding requests for ever-more information concerning the colourful world of HARIBO. Consumers, retailers, and journalists all want to know just how and when HARIBO got started, how the traditional company from Bonn acquired its name, how the colourful and varied product range of gums, jellies, marshmallows and liquorice were developed, how and by whom were the legendary HARIBO Golden Bears created, and how HARIBO finally achieved its standing today: as a successful, worldwide business with almost legendary customer loyalty. On the following pages, all these and many more questions will be answered. We’ll tell you the story of our company and its people and also about the great importance we place on quality standards, our myriad of products, as well as the many production processes and interesting events surrounding the Golden Bears & Co. We hope you’ll learn a lot, laugh a lot, and above all come to understand why HARIBO is considered by consumers to be the most trustworthy sugar confectionery brand in the world. So go on, – why not dive into the colourful world of HARIBO! Yours sincerely, The HARIBO Team HARIBO Chamallows Page 24 HARIBO International History Seite 10 Page 4 The Fruit Gum Liquorice Page 14 Page 26 MAOAM The Golden Bear Page 45 Page 20 Product Design and Production Advertising, Marketing Page 32 and other Highlights Page 38 Our History since 1920 1920 1920 – Hans Riegel 1920 – The first “factory” is a kitchen sink 1921 – ans Riegel founds HARIBO. in Kessenich, Germany. marries, and his wife, Gertrud, becomes the first HARIBO employee. A Sack of Sugar and a Copper Kettle Hans Riegel was born on 3 April 1893 in Friesdorf near Bonn, the son of Peter and Agnes Riegel. After technical school he sought work as a confectioner and spent five years at the firm Kleutgen & Meier. Further stages in his career include jobs at production plants in Neuss and Osnabrück. Then after World War I, Heinen, a company based in Bonn-Kessenich, was looking for a confectioner, and Riegel was taken on as a partner, after which the company became known as Heinen & Riegel. In 1920, Riegel became the sole owner of the firm. He acquired a house on Bergstrasse in Kessenich, a suburb of Bonn where he set up his first production plant. The starting capital consisted of a sack of sugar, a marble slab, a stool, a walled-up stove, a copper kettle and a roller. Here, in a small kitchen sink, the legacy of an internationally successful enterprise was born. On 13 December 1920, Riegel registered the name HARIBO, an abbrevia- tionofHAns RIegel BOnn, in the Bonn Commercial Registry. In 1921, he married Gertrud, who was to become the first employee of the young company. 5 1925 – The legendary liquorice sticks are a really big seller. 1930 History 1930-1935 1935 1923 – The first HARIBO delivery van. 1930 – HARIBO already employs 160 workers. HARIBO Golden Bears and Liquorice Sticks – The Cornerstone of a Sweet Success Story In 1922, Hans Riegel laid the cornerstone of HARIBO’s forthcoming success by creating the Dancing Bear – a little bear made out of fruit gum, which would later become as world famous as the HARIBO Golden Bears. Rising demand called for an investment in modern transportation technology and in 1923 HARIBO acquired its first automobile, complete with business placard, for making deliveries to customers. Up until this time, his wife and colleague, Gertrud, had delivered each day’s batch of sweets by bicycle. In the same year, their son, Hans, was born, followed in 1924 by their daughter, Anita, and then in 1926 by their second son, Paul. Only three years after the creation of the Dancing Bear, Riegel laid the second cornerstone for HARIBO’s later suc- cesses: He began to produce liquorice products. Early best-sellers were the famed liquorice sticks bearing the HARIBO logo. Many other liquorice delicacies soon followed, including the liquorice wheel, which was later to become internationally famous. By 1930, HARIBO employed 160 workers and a strong team of sales representatives was in place covering all of Germany to ensure HARIBO products were available everywhere. 1922 – Hans Riegel invents the Dancing Bears. A further stroke of genius in the mid-thirties gave the firm the simple, congenial, and catchy slogan “HARIBO makes children happy,” which in German, “HARIBO macht Kinder froh,” has an easy nursery rhyme jingle to it. Steadily rising sales figures naturally required an expansion of production capabilities and between 1930 and 1933 the main building of today’s plant in Bonn was constructed. In the run-up to World War II, the company had become a solid, mid-sized firm with around 400 employees. The years 1939 to 1945 found Germany with the unfortunate task of making tanks over gummy bears and HARIBO experienced setbacks, mainly due to the shortage of raw materials. When firm founder Hans Riegel passed away in 1945 at the age of fifty-two, Gertrud kept the company going through the immediate aftermath of the war. 7 HARIBO-Characters – The “Liquorice Sticks” were once as distinctive as the “Golden Bear“ are nowadays. History 1950, 1965, 1985 1950 1965 1985 1946 – Paul and Hans Riegel Dr. Hans Riegel Today Paul Riegel take over the family business. † 2 August 2009 The Second Generation The rebuilding of the company began immediately after the end of World War II. In 1945, 1962 – HARIBO’s first HARIBO was down to only about thirty employees, but the production facilities in Bonn had TV ad is broadcast. at least made it through the war undamaged. The biggest problem in the first few years after the war was the scarcity of raw materials. When Hans and Paul Riegel were released from POW camps, they took over running the company from their mother, dividing the work in a way that remains in place to this day: Dr. Hans Riegel became responsible for the distrib- ution side, including sales and marketing, whilst his brother, Paul, was responsible for pro- duction up to his sudden and unexpected death in August, 2009. As an experienced tinkerer, he designed machines himself and even built the prototypes in workshop at the plant. One of his most spectacular inventions was a machine for making the liquorice wheels. Seit 1991 – homas Gottschalk The results soon showed the wisdom of their approach: The flourishing enterprise becomes a spokesperson for expanded and – only five years after the war – came to employ almost 1,000 workers. the HARIBO Golden Bears. Of primary importance for the continued success and growth of this family company was the uniformly high quality standards of the products, the constant development of new and timely product ideas, and, last but not least, the marketing strategy developed by Dr. Hans 1998 – HARIBO goes online. Riegel for the entire product range. In the mid-sixties, the slogan “HARIBO makes children happy” was expanded to include the phrase “– and adults, too”. This newly evolved slogan worked extremely well, marking the ever-widening fan-base for HARIBO products. (The Eng- lish version, which works in the rhyming of the original, was translated as “Kids and grown- ups love it so, the happy world of HARIBO”). HARIBO recognized very early on how important the new medium of television would be for the further development of the com- pany and, in 1962, the first HARIBO commercials were broadcast on German television. HARIBO ads were broadcast on German television. In order to create a continual and familiar presence in Germany, in 1991 HARIBO also established what is now the longest-lasting advertising partnership with a spokesperson, by bringing in the famous entertainer, Thomas Gottschalk. He has been actively involved in advertising for the “Golden Bear” and many other HARIBO products ever since 1991. By 1998 HARIBO had begun to use even newer media, embracing the new on-line community and setting up its own website. Now HARIBO 9 fans can keep up with the latest developments at any time and at any place by logging on to www.haribo.com. HARIBO International HARIBO International A Rainbow of Products and an International Network of Manufacturing and Sales The history of the HARIBO is an on-going success story. What HARIBO products are manufactured at sixteen locations started at a small kitchen sink in a small suburb in Bonn with a all over Europe. The firm has also continuously been increasing sack full of sugar and a copper kettle has developed into one its market standing and expanding its product range, through of the best-loved and most well-known brands in the confec- the purchase of top-quality brands both in and outside tionery industry. The appearance of the products may have Germany. The story of HARIBO is one which has gone from one changed over the decades, but the excellent quality of the fruit level of success to the next.