A Bear with a Difference

Germany is famous for sauerkraut. But it may also become famous for a new food product – "SauerKau".

SauerKau is one of Haribo, the candy company’s, latest additions to a range of sweet products which have made the German firm internationally famous.

This year Haribo celebrates the 80th anniversary of its most famous product – the Goldbär, or "gold bear", a tiny bear made of fruit gum which has captured the hearts of sweet teeth all over the globe.

A major inspiration

Candy maker Hans Riegel founded Haribo, which stands for Hans RIegel BOnn, in 1920. His starting capital consisted of a marble slab, a stool, a brick, a copper kettle and a roller.

Initially, Haribo only made boiled sweets, but in 1922 Riegel felt inspired to make a "dancing bear" or small bear made of fruit gum.

In those days Riegel produced a daily output of a hundred kilos of bears. Today, the company produces the little squidgy animals by the million.

Tiny product, big success

Today, not only in Germany, almost every child knows Haribo and its little fruity bears. Their popularity is not least the result of a successful advertising campaign which dates back to the 30s.

In 1930, Haribo came up with the jingle "Haribo macht Kinder froh" – or Haribo makes children happy – a melody which is still to be heard regularly on radio and TV to this day.

And in Germany, Haribo is a product propelled forward with the help of blonde-haired, witty German showmaster Thomas Gottschalk, who’s talk show guests are offered gum bears to soothe chatter-parched throats in front of millions of viewers all over the country.

A liquorice tradition

Untill 1925, the company’s collection only consisted of boiled sweets and fruit gums. It was then expanded to liquorice – in the form of wheels, sticks and shoe laces. However, the bears were the stars of the Haribo show, especially as liquorice did not have the same tradition in Germany as it did in a country like Great Britain.

Since then, Haribo UK has been largely responsible for a revolution in children’s confectionery – candy with a century old history.

Pontefact, situated not far from Leeds, may be a small town in England. But it played a significant role in British trade – namely as the leading liquorice cultivation area in the country.

Liquorice had been cultivated in Pontefact since the 16th century, when Mediterranean Dominican monks settled in North England and brought the plant with them as a source of medicine for coughs and stomach complaints. The plant would not flower in the cold climate of Nothern England, but as only the roots were of importance, the monks carried on cultivating a plant which, decades later, led the city to fame.

The birth of a sweet

In 1760, English businessman George Dunhill added sugar to the already well-known Pontefact cakes, turning a primarily medicinal product into an immensely popular sweet.

Dunhill founded a liquorice firm which was to flourish fast. In 1994 it was taken over by the world’s biggest producer of fruit gums and liquorice products, Haribo.

Haribo brought new recipies, packaging methods as well as innovations such as new gelatine manufacturing technologies from Germany to its British sister.

Despite the "revolution", Dunhill’s product portfolio of traditional lines was kept in production. The famous Pontefact cakes are still made today. However, Dunhill’s small, round liquorice delights have long been overtaken by Happy Cola Bottles, Kiddies Super Mix and Starmix, a massive 16 million Euro ($14 million) brand.

Today, Haribo has 17 production facilities in 14 European countries, including Denmark, France and Spain. In 1982 the company set up a sales organisation in the US.

Today, the company produces 400 tons of sweets a week, ranging from Tangfastics, Build-a-Burger to SauerKau. One of the new trends in Haribo sweets - Spinach-and-Egg – may remind kids of a warm meal. But no cooking skills are required here - just a preference for sweet, sticky and green gum.