Barry Callebaut

The story of the world's leading chocolate and cocoa manufacturer begins not as one, but two separate family enterprises. In 1842, Charles Barry, an Englishman, founded Cacao Barry in France, driven by a passion to source the finest cocoa beans from Africa. Eight years later, in Belgium, Eugenius Callebaut started a brewery, a business his family would later pivot to chocolate making in 1911 under the guidance of his grandson, Octaaf Callebaut. For decades, both companies honed their craft independently. The Callebaut family focused on producing high-quality chocolate for professionals, even inventing a method to transport it in liquid form. Cacao Barry, meanwhile, established itself as an expert in cocoa processing, even expanding its operations to Africa to be closer to the source. The paths of these two chocolate powerhouses converged in 1996. Under the vision of Klaus Johann Jacobs, who had previously acquired the Callebaut business, the French Cacao Barry and the Belgian Callebaut merged to form Barry Callebaut. This strategic union created a vertically integrated company, involved in everything from sourcing the bean to producing the final chocolate product. Just two years after the merger, in 1998, the newly formed entity went public with an IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange. This event provided the capital to pay down debt and solidified its position for future growth, setting the stage for its evolution into the heart and engine of the global chocolate industry.