Strategic Mergers Shaping the Chocolate and Coffee Industry: The Journey of Suchard, Tobler, and Jacobs

The 1970 merger of Suchard and Swiss chocolatier Tobler marked a major consolidation in the chocolate industry. Founded by Philippe Suchard in 1826, Suchard was well-known for its premium chocolates and pioneering production methods. Tobler, established by Jean Tobler in 1868, gained fame for its Toblerone chocolate bar, distinguished by its unique triangular shape and honey-almond nougat flavor.

This merger brought together the strengths of both companies, forming a powerful entity in the chocolate market. The new company capitalized on Suchard’s broad distribution network and Tobler’s strong brand identity to enhance its market reach and expand its product offerings.

In 1990, the company underwent further evolution by merging with Jacobs, a leading coffee maker famous for its high-quality coffee blends. This merger created Jacobs Suchard, a diversified company with a significant presence in both the chocolate and coffee markets. By integrating Jacobs’ coffee expertise with Suchard’s and Tobler’s chocolate legacy, the company introduced innovative products like coffee-flavored chocolates.

These strategic moves positioned Jacobs Suchard as a dominant force in the European confectionery and beverage markets. However, the company's journey continued in 1993 when Kraft General Foods International acquired Jacobs Suchard, expanding its global reach. Kraft, a major player in the food and beverage industry, viewed the acquisition as an opportunity to enhance its product lineup and bolster its presence in Europe.

The acquisition allowed Jacobs Suchard to leverage Kraft’s vast resources, marketing expertise, and global distribution channels. This facilitated the introduction of Jacobs Suchard’s products to new markets, driving the brand’s international growth and recognition.

These mergers and acquisitions underscore the dynamic nature of the food and beverage industry, highlighting the importance of innovation and adaptation in maintaining market leadership.
Strategic Mergers Shaping the Chocolate and Coffee Industry: The Journey of Suchard, Tobler, and Jacobs

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharma company that focuses on the discovery and development of innovative medicines. The long history of Bristol-Myers started in 1887 when William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers bought the former Clinton Pharmaceuticals.

Clinton Pharmaceutical was a failing drug manufacturing firm located in Clinton, New York, when Bristol and Myers invested $5,000 in the company in 1887.

The company remained Clinton Pharmaceuticals until May of 1898 when it was renamed Bristol, Myers Company, and the following the death of Myers in 1899, became Bristol-Myers Corporation.

Early on, the company’s top sellers included products such as mineral salts and toothpaste. By 1924, Bristol’s earnings had surpassed the $1 million mark, and five years later, the c0mpany went public.

After World War II, Bristol-Myers became more diversified over four decades buying up companies such as Mead Johnson, Clairol, Drackett, and Zimmer.

Squibb, too, traces its roots back it the 19th century having founded by Edward Squibb in 1858. Unlike Bristol-Myers though, whose history began with consumer-oriented personal care products, Squibb’s early expertise was in chemistry.

The merger between Bristol-Myers and Squibb Corporation took place in 1989. The merger created Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, which was then the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical enterprise. In the early 1990s, Bristol-Myers Squibb made headlines with their experimental cancer drug Taxol.

In 2001 the company announces the purchase of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company for $7.8 billion, with the intention of further strengthening Bristol-Myers Squibb’s medicines business.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

History of Standard Chartered Bank

The name Standard Chartered Bank had been formed in 1969 from the merger of the two original banks from which it was founded – The Standard Bank of British South Africa and The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.

The Chartered Bank was founded first, on 29 December 1853 by a Scot, James Wilson from Hawick. He also founded the eminent financial magazine, the Economist.

The bank’s traditional business was in cotton from Bombay, Indigo and tea for Calcutta, rice form Burma, sugar from Java, tobacco for Sumatra, and silk from Yokohama.

Another Scotsman, John Paterson, founded a local newspaper, The Eastern Province Herald in Cape Province in South Africa, became a merchant and helped found The Standard Bank of British South Africa in 1862.

The Chartered Bank was origin in the Far East, the Middle East and India, and the Standard Chartered had a strong links in Africa. The bank was prominent in financing the development for the diamond fields and later gold mines.

Its overdependence on these markets persuaded the Standard Chartered board to diversify and buy the Hodge Group, a financial holding company, in 1974, and to expand in the UK.
History of Standard Chartered Bank

History of Lockheed Martin

The history of the Lockheed Corporation begins with the two Loughead brothers, Allan and Malcolm, who started flying in 1913. Their father, John was a hardware store owner and truck farmer and their mother, Flora was a writer.

The brother became interested in aviation when their brother Victor who worked with automobile distribution company wrote a book about flying. They setup their own company, the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California in 1916, working with Jack Northrop and others.

The company was soon renamed Lockheed in 1934 to avoid mispronunciation.

In 1932, a group of young men, headed by Robert E. Gross acquired the company.

The first model 10 Electra took off in 1934, and so did the company. For next 15 years civilian and military aircraft pouted off the assembly line with more than 20,000 Lockheed planes built for World War II.

During the second half of the 20th century, Lockheed continued to pioneer new advancements in aircraft and defense systems technologies.

Lockheed Martin was officially formed on 16 March 1995 by merging between Lockheed Corporation and Martin-Mariette. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.

The new corporation emerges with strong product lines in the field of aeronautics and aerospace and has become the sole major competitor to the other giant of US aerospace, the Boeing Company.

On April 22, 1996, Lockheed Martin completed the acquisition of Loral Corporation’s defense electronics and system integration businesses for $9.1 billion, the deal having been announced in January.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have boosts in Lockheed Martin’s sales, due to major spending on Patriot missiles and other combat-related systems.
History of Lockheed Martin

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate known for most its partly owned business like Coca-Cola, Gillette and American Express.

The Hathaway Manufacturing Company was founded in 1888 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, as a cotton milling operations. Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates and Hathaway Manufacturing were merged in 1955 to form Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The merged company was huge for its time, with 15 plants, 12,000 employees and revenue of over $120 million.

By the end of the 50s, this public company had closed seven of its plant and laid off a large number of workers.

In 1962 Buffet partnerships began purchasing shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire was selling at around $8 per share, well below its net worth.

By 1965, Warren Buffet increasing their share to 49 per cent and took control of Berkshire and named Ken Chase as its new president.

He transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a textile manufacturing company into an investment holding company.

In 1967 Berkshire Hathaway, once and once only, paid dividend – of 10 cents on its outstanding stock. It never happened again.
Berkshire Hathaway

Business history of Benckiser NV

Johann A. Benckiser founded a business in the Germany in 1823 with limited resources the company’s core business was derived from industrial chemicals.

Benckiser diversified into consumer goods launched Calgon Water Softener and made a name for itself globally as the Calgon maker.

In 1966 Benckiser developed and launched Calgonit Automatic Dishwashing Detergent and Quanto Fabric Softener.

Benckiser continued its expansion into consumer goods via acquisitions and divestitures. In 1985 Benckiser acquired St. Marc S.A France.

Later in 1990 Benckiser acquired Beecham Household Products in the United States and Canada.

In 2000, Reckitt & Coleman plc (UK) merged with Benckiser NV (Dutch) to form Reckitt Benckiser. Reckitt Benckiser, headquartered in Slough is now the world’s biggest maker of household cleaners.

In 2000 Reckitt Benckiser had around 20,000 employees, produced net revenues of just over ₤3 billion and had operating profit of ₤357 million.

Ten years later, with only an extra 5000 employees, revenue had more than doubled to nearly ₤8 billion and profits had risen by more than five times to nearly ₤2 billion.
Business history of Benckiser NV

Cadbury Company

Cadbury Company
In 1794, Richard Cadbury, a prominent Quaker moved from the West Country in Britain to Birmingham.

In 1824, his son John Cadbury opened a store at 93 Bull Street, in Birmingham , England, which sold coffee and tea. Cadbury a Quaker was strong supporter of temperance and believed that manufacturing alternatives to alcohol beverages was important.

In 1831, Cadbury Brothers began manufacturing cocoa for drinking chocolate.

John Cadbury took his brother Benjamin into partnership in 1847, changing the name of the business to Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham and renting a new factory in Bridge Street in the center of Birmingham.

By 1866, Cadbury Brothers was producing eating chocolate. In 1879 Cadbury launched a new community called Bourneville which produced handmade bonbons, chocolate-covered nougat and other chocolate candies.

Cadbury also constructed houses for workers in Bourneville and implemented novel labor practices such as paid holidays and vacations, insurance program, and night schools for its employee.

In 1919, Cadbury acquired Joseph S. Fry & Sons, another major English chocolate maker. After the acquisition, the new company was registered as British Cocoa and Chocolate in May 19, 1919.

The company continued to grow globally throughout the twentieth century. In 1969 Cadbury and Schweppes merged to form Cadbury Schweppes.

Since then Cadbury Schweppes has acquired many other companies, including Mott’s (1982), Canada Dry (1986), Hires Root Beer (1989), A & W Beverages (1993), Dr. Pepper and 7-Up (1995), Hawaiian Punch (1999), Orangina (2002), and Snapple Beverage Group (2003).

It also acquired Adams Confectionary, which included brands such as Halls, Trident, Dentyne and Bubbas Bubblegum.

As of 2005, Cadbury Schweppes was a leading global confectionary company, the world’s second largest manufacturer of gum and the world’s third-largest manufacturer of soft drinks.

In January 2010, Cadbury agreed to be taken over by Kraft Foods worth about $19 billion.
Cadbury Company

The Creation of General Electric

The Creation of General Electric
Before the creation of General Electric, a series of mergers in the late 1880s created three giant corporations. The several Edison companies and the Sprague Electric Railway Company merged, incorporating officially in January 1889, to become Edison General Electric.

At the same time Westinghouse acquired three small companies: Consolidated Electric Company (1887), the United Electric Lighting Company (1890) and the Waterhouse Electric and Manufacturing Company (1888).

Another company the Thompson-Houston Electric Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, acquired seven competitors between 1888 and 1890 and emerged with the majority of the arc lighting business, a clutch of key patents, and a large pool of skilled personnel.

Thus in 1890 there were three large corporations in the electrical industry: Edison General Electric, Westinghouse and Thompson-Houston.

After many mergers of the late 1880s the patent positions of the three corporations remained extremely confused in many respects. In particular the Thompson-Houston Company held weak patents in incandescent lighting, and Edison General Electric had few patents in the alternating current field.

Equally important problems bedeviled the electric street railway business, where each had some patents; similar conflicts prevailed through every products line in the industry. Merger promised an end to these potential conflicts; competition virtually ensured many legal expenses and price wars, not to mention the possibility of exclusion from new markets.

All three competitors considered mergers with each other two before the Edison General Electric Company and the Thompson-Houston Company joined in 1892.

They became General Electric. With their merger the entire electrical industry was reduced from fifteen competitors to a duopoly in just five years. Westinghouse and General Electric completed this rationalization in 1895 by signing a patent sharing agreement, effectively removing the last barrier to market control.
The Creation of General Electric