Kwatta (confectionery manufacturer)
Kwatta is a Belgian brand name for chocolate products that has existed since 1883 . Since 2001, Kwatta has been part of the US food company The Kraft Heinz Company .
history
Plantation and candy factory
The story of Kwatta has its origins in Suriname . In the mid-19th century, the Dutch had Gustaaf van Emden in the district Wanica , near Paramaribo , a cocoa plantation, the name Kwatta wore (later its name to the department of the district). “Kwatta” is intended to mean “a quarter,” and refers to the fact that a quarter of the ingredient in chocolate is cocoa. Another explanation refers to the local name Quatto for the South American red-faced spider monkeys that live there .
In 1877 Van Emden returned to the Netherlands and founded in 1883 with the confectioner P.A. de Bondt in Breda, the Chocoladefabriek De Bondt en Co . De Bondt confectionery began making sugar confectionery as early as 1851 . She later focused on the machine production of peppermint products. One year after the company was founded, Van Emden continued to run the company under the name NV Stoom Cacao- en Chocoladefabriek Kwatta , named after its plantation in northern Surinam.
In 1893, ten years after the company was founded, the business was taken over by the brothers Eugène and Jules Stokvis , who modernized and expanded the company. As early as 1905, thirty people were working there. In the years that followed, Kwatta also set up factories in Belgium, Germany and France.
The chocolate bars
When the cocoa market fell into a crisis in 1907 and the prices for these raw materials rose, many cocoa and chocolate manufacturers had to close their doors. Kwatta got through this crisis thanks to its small-format chocolate bars. This Kwatta bar was very popular among soldiers, so that the army ultimately became the largest buyer and this bar was available in all barracks. The product was renamed "Kwatta's" Manoeuvre-reep "(" Kwatta's maneuver bar ") and a soldier was shown on the packaging. These soldiers could be cut out and collected. Five soldier pictures could be exchanged for a tin soldier. There were in the 1950s A flexible soldier figure for 100 cut-out soldiers, the "Kwatta-soldaatje", which was very popular with children at the time. In addition, the Kwatta albums for other collector's pictures (including the Smurfs ) were added. There were also posters on which the This made Kwatta the first label supplier for chocolate products, and Kwatta became a generic name for chocolate bars .
expansion
In 1913, after the merger with the local chocolaterie La Compagnie Internationale d'Alimentation in Bois-d'Haine (now part of Manage ), Kwatta became a Belgian-Dutch branded chocolate. In 1921, production in Breda was expanded to include a modern factory in the Princenhage district of Breda , which was then an independent location. Kwatta rose to become the largest employer in the region. In 1924 the previous cooperation between Kwatta NV and NV Cacao- & Chocoladefabrieken was born. Sickesz , from Amsterdam ( Herengracht 20), ended and the Amsterdam company was then actually taken over. In 1935 the traditional brand A.Driessen Cacao en Chocolaadfabriek in Rotterdam (founded in 1854), which had faltered due to the global economic crisis , was taken over and its production relocated to Princenhage. In 1938 the number of employees, mostly women, rose to 700.
Kwattafabrik in Cologne
In the mid-1920s, Kwatta acquired the building of a former brewery in Cologne-Ehrenfelder Roßstrasse, which had been vacant for years . These were built in 1890 by the Cologne councilor J. Wahlen as the Rhenania brewery and taken over and modernized in 1902 by the neighboring Adler brewery . Their most famous beer brand was the "Overstolz-Bräu". Due to the shortage in the First World War , operations in Roßstrasse were closed in the winter of 1916/17. About ten years later, Kwatta acquired the vacant buildings. In 1928 a new production building was completed at Roßstraße 12, as was the factory building behind it. Kwatta chocolate products were made there until 1964. Kwatta was the second large chocolate manufacturer in Cologne, alongside Stollwerck AG. Then the factory was closed and the properties were sold to the city of Cologne. The hall and a crossbar were demolished after a long period of vacancy in the 1980s for reasons of disrepair. There is now a small public park ("Kwatta Park"). In the preserved, listed houses, u. a. Artists with their studios. Under the buildings, as well as under the park, are the four old beer cellars , each with approx. 35 meters long and 5.85 m high. In the days of Kwatta, raw materials and finished products were also stored there. Today they are largely unused.
Departure from Breda
After the Second World War , Kwatta no longer achieved its old market position as it existed before the war. In addition, chocolate bars , mainly from the USA , replaced the old, traditionally made chocolate bars .
The European cocoa and chocolate market changed in the 1960s and 1970s. The countries that previously only cultivated and exported cocoa beans now also produced preliminary and finished products. Exports to the Eastern Bloc countries also stagnated because they were now producing their own chocolate products. In an effort to stabilize its market position, acquired the Kwatta NV, The Hague company Wijnand Beke and went partnerships with the company Rademakers ( "Haagse Hopjes") and the company Van den Dungen ( "Jamaica rumbonen") one. The plant in Cologne was closed.
But at the beginning of the 1970s, Kwatta ran into even greater difficulties. In 1973 the company suffered a heavy loss and had to lay off 200 employees. The union and the works council requested a review, but management declined because they were already planning to close the company. Afterwards it turns out that the bankruptcy was delayed and there were further layoffs in the years that followed. In 1977 the rest of the business moved from Breda to Etten-Leur and operated under the name of Pieter Nieuwerkerk . The factory building in Breda was completely demolished in 1979 after a few years of vacancy and a new residential area was built.
The Kwatta brand from 1972
The name Kwatta, a household name in Belgium since 1913, did not disappear from the consciousness of Dutch consumers during the crisis at the beginning of the 1970s. It was still a Schokladenbrotaufstrich in a characteristic glass on the market (already available in Belgium since 1935). Kwatta NV was finally taken over by the Belgian company Continental Sweets , known in Belgium primarily for its Lutti confectionery brand . Continental Sweet, in turn, belongs to the Belgian Continental Foods , which is known in Belgium for its delicatessen brand Devos Lemmens . In 1985, Continental Foods was taken over by Campbell's Belgium . In 1996 the pasta manufacturer Anco , which belongs to the Dutch company Corbion , acquired the brand. In 2001 the Kwatta brand was sold to the US company Heinz . Today, mainly on the Belgian market, chocolate spreads, chocolate sprinkles and cocoa powder are sold under the name Kwatta.
Kwatta popularly
"All eyes are on Kwatta" (orig. "Aller ogen zijn gericht op Kwatta") was a related slogan of Kwatta, also in everyday language. The term describes the focus on a specific point or topic. In Noord-Brabant and Gelderland , older people still use the word kwatta synonymously for chocolate, e.g. B. "Do you still like a piece of kwatta?" Hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) are also called Kwattastrussel in Belgium. In the local Breda dialect - by today's standards politically incorrect - a dark-skinned person is referred to as a Kwattalip .
Web links
- Official website of the products which are now sold under the brand name Kwatta
- Cacao- en Chocoladebewerkers , Dik Nas, Vakbondshistorische Vereniging, September 2000
- History ( Memento from December 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, Leiden, 2015
- ^ Special supplement of the Kölner Tageblatt from December 15, 1929
- ↑ Stefanie Becker: The Kwatta chocolate factory in Cologne-Ehrenfeld , seminar paper at RWTH Aachen. Publisher: Rheinische Industriekultur e. V.
