Barry Callebaut AG - Introduction

Introduction

Westpark, Pfingstweidstrasse 60
8005 Zurich
Switzerland
Telephone: +41-44-801-61-57
Fax: +41-44-801-61-53
Web site: http://www.barry-callebaut.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1842 as Cacao Barry; 1850 as Callebaut
Employees: 8,933
Sales: CHF 4.04 billion ($3.18 billion) (2004)
Stock Exchanges: Zürich
Ticker Symbol: BARN
NAIC: 311320 Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacturing from Cacao Beans

Franco-Belgo-Swiss Barry Callebaut AG is the world's largest manufacturer of chocolate and cocoa products for industrial and consumer use. Barry Callebaut has its corporate headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, while maintaining its French and Belgian roots. Barry Callebaut operates 30 cocoa processing and chocolate production facilities in 22 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Asia/Pacific region. The only vertically integrated chocolate concern in a $60-billion-in-sales industry, Barry Callebaut processes 15 percent of the world's cocoa production, supplying an estimated 35 percent of the world's gourmet chocolatiers. The company's history comprises the heritages of two companies, Belgian chocolate maker Callebaut and its French rival Cacao Barry. The two companies merged in the mid-1990s, a deal orchestrated by Swiss financier Klaus J. Jacobs, whose company, Klaus J. Jacobs Holdings, owns a majority stake in Barry Callebaut.