Freia (chocolate)
Encyclopedia
Freia is a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 candy manufacturing company. The company is famous for Freia Melkesjokolade
Freia Melkesjokolade
Freia Melkesjokolade is a Milk Chocolate from the Norwegian chocolate brand Freia and has been the most sold chocolate in Norway since the 1960s. The chocolate was launched in Sweden in the 1950s as a Swedish product, then called Marabou, and has since then been known under the Marabou brand in the...

 and Kvikk Lunsj
Kvikk Lunsj
Kvikk Lunsj is a confection created by the Norwegian chocolate brand Freia in 1937.It consists of a thick bar, composed of wafer covered with milk chocolate, and divided into four fingers. Each finger can be snapped from the bar, one at a time. The Kvikk Lunsj XXL introduced in 1999, has one large...

, as well as for other candy
Candy
Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...

  and dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...

 products.

History

The company was founded in 1889, but real success was seen only in 1892, when Johan Throne Holst
Johan Throne Holst
Johan Throne Holst , was a Norwegian industrialist and politician for the Liberal Left Party ....

 (1868–1946) took over management. Holst realized that there was a potential market for edible milk chocolate, in addition to the dark chocolate and other minor products Freia were producing at the time. Holst built up Freia to be Norway's leading chocolate manufacturer.
By the turn of the century, Freia was the leading Norwegian brand in sweets
SweetS
was a Japanese idol group. Put together through auditions, the group debuted in 2003 on the avex trax label. Although the group met minor success, they disbanded after three years with the release of a final single in June 2006....

. Since its inception the factory has been in the Rodeløkka
Rodeløkka
Rodeløkka is a neighborhood in Grünerløkka in Oslo, Norway.From 1900 to 1961, it was served by the Rodeløkka Line of the Oslo Tramway.-The name:...

 neighborhood in the borough of Grünerløkka in Oslo.

Based on the success in Norway, the Throne-Holst family in 1916 founded the chocolate factory Marabou
Marabou (chocolate)
Marabou is a Swedish chocolate brand, which has been the most successful ever since it was launched in 1916. The distinctive brand was founded by the Norwegian chocolatier Johan Throne Holst who already had launched the same chocolate recipe in Norway under the name Freia with great...

 in Upplands Väsby
Upplands Väsby
Upplands Väsby is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 35,977 inhabitants in 2005.-Overview:...

 outside of Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. The name Freia (or Freja) could not be used due to a conflicting trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 in Sweden. The name Marabou was chosen instead from the Marabou Stork
Marabou Stork
The Marabou Stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferus, is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It breeds in Africa south of the Sahara, occurring in both wet and arid habitats, often near human habitation, especially waste tips...

, the species of bird on the Freia logo.

Later years

Freia was purchased in 1993 by Kraft Foods Nordic
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...

, for NOK
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

 3 billion.
The company’s flagship product has since then been the Milk Chocolate candy bar, Freia Melkesjokolade
Freia Melkesjokolade
Freia Melkesjokolade is a Milk Chocolate from the Norwegian chocolate brand Freia and has been the most sold chocolate in Norway since the 1960s. The chocolate was launched in Sweden in the 1950s as a Swedish product, then called Marabou, and has since then been known under the Marabou brand in the...

. On the basis of this famous product, Freia produces several other candy bars, with added nut
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

s, raisin
Raisin
Raisins are dried grapes. They are produced in many regions of the world. Raisins may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking and brewing...

s, cookie
Cookie
In the United States and Canada, a cookie is a small, flat, baked treat, usually containing fat, flour, eggs and sugar. In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for this is biscuit; in many regions both terms are used, while in others the two words have...

s and Daim pieces. The brand has constantly been marketed in a national romantic spirit - as the essence of everything that is Norwegian. Their slogan is "A small piece of Norway" (Et lite stykke Norge).

External links

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