In 1848 Bernhard Cloetta left his hometown of Bergün, Switzerland, and headed north. After a few years he was followed by his brothers Christoffer and Nutin, and for a time the three studied chocolate-making in Paris.
Success in Copenhagen
They eventually gathered in Copenhagen and in 1862 established the firm of ”Brödrene Cloetta” for manufacturing of chocolate, confectionery and sweets. The products were made according to Swiss and French recipes and took the market by storm.
Word of the delicious Cloetta chocolate also spread to Sweden. In response to growing demand from Sweden, the brothers decided to open a factory in Malmö in 1872. The business proved successful and expanded rapidly.
To promote chocolate as a popular drink, they opened a ”Chocolateria” in 1875 at Grynbodgatan in Malmö where customers could buy a large cup of drinking chocolate for 6 öre. Eventually, a chocolate shop was also opened.
The king in chocolate
At the Stockholm Exhibition of 1897, Cloetta’s pavilion created a sensation by displaying two magnificent life-sized statues of Sweden’s King Oscar and Queen Sophia. The statues were made of solid chocolate and the newspapers reported that the King was delighted. The same year, Cloetta was commissioned to provision Andrée’s North Pole expedition with chocolate – both pure chocolate and chocolate supplemented with meat extract.
The standard assortment included products like Bernadotte bonbons, Bismarck marmelade, chocolate babies with crème fluff, crayfish, frogs and fish of chewy pink jelly and Indian Cough Flower (for treating colds).
The factory moves to Ljungsbro
In 1899 Cloetta purchased its competitor Chokladfabriks Aktiebolaget Motala with a factory in Råby, outside the town of Motala. In 1901 manufacturing was relocated from Malmö and Råby to a new facility in Ljungsbro, a move that set its mark on both the company and the community. Cloetta’s ambition was for Ljungsbro to be a spacious and well tended garden city and by the 1910s had built housing for its employees.
The Svenfelts take over Cloetta
In 1917 the majority shareholding was taken over from the Cloetta family by the newly established Svenska Chokladfabriks AB, a company owned by the Svenfelt family which still has major holdings in Cloetta. However, the company name Cloetta was retained as a widely recognised symbol for good chocolate.
Many of today’s well known brands, such as Kexchoklad, Center, Sportlunch, Romerska Bågar, Tarragona and Mums-Mums, date back to first half of the 1900s and the slogan ”Ta det rätta – ta Cloetta” (Choose right – choose Cloetta) was launched already in 1921.
For many years the company was responsible for all urban planning and public utilities in Ljungsbro, including street maintenance, water and power supply. As late as the 1930s there was a post office, a telephone station and a bank within the factory itself.
In the 1940s there was a vision to make Ljungsbro Sweden’s “capital of chocolate”. Cloetta had an in-house architectural firm that designed and built employee housing, a daycare centre, a clinic and a dentist’s office.
Expansion
Over the years the company grew both organically and through acquisitions. During the 1990s Cloetta took over the confectionery companies Again and Candelia. In 2007 Cloetta aquired Karamellpojkarna with production in Alingsås. In 2012, Cloetta and LEAF merge and becomes a leading confectionery company in the Nordic region, and with market leading positions in Italy and the Netherlands.