Maker record

Alpia

Alpia is a German chocolate brand introduced by Stollwerck in 1906. It began with chocolate bars; its current range includes chocolate bars and chocolate snacks. Products shown on the brand’s website include bars with nuts, fruit, nougat and marzipan, as well as chocolate-covered pretzels and crunchy snacks. Alpia describes a production process that includes roasting and grinding cocoa beans, refining the cocoa mass, and forming it into bars or using it as a coating for snacks.

Founded: 1887
Founders: Herrmann Alpia

The story of Alpia

Alpia entered the market in 1906 as a bar-chocolate brand of Stollwerck. The company’s founder, baker and confectioner Franz Stollwerck, began making cough sweets at his Cologne bakery in 1843 and added chocolate, marzipan and Printen in 1860. After Franz’s death, his five sons continued the business, which became a joint-stock company in 1902. By then Stollwerck operated factories in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain and the United States.

Deutsche Bank took a majority of Stollwerck’s shares in 1931 and sold the company to chocolate manufacturer Hans Imhoff in 1971. Van Houten, a subsidiary of Barry Callebaut, took over Stollwerck between 2002 and 2005. In 2011 Barry Callebaut sold its consumer business, including Alpia and Stollwerck, to Sweet Products/Baronie. Alpia’s current range includes chocolate bars and snacks, including chocolate-covered products.