Haribo is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 confectionery

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

 producer, founded in 1920 by Hans Riegel Sr. The company headquarters are in Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

, and the name is an acronym for Hans Riegel, Bonn.

After Hans Riegel Sr. died during World War II, his son, also named Hans Riegel

Hans Riegel

Johannes Peter "Hans" Riegel is a German entrepreneur who has owned and operated confectionery maker Haribo since 1946.Born in Bonn, he is the oldest son of the company's founder Hans Riegel, Sr...

, took over the company. Haribo expanded its operations taking over many local sweet manufacturers in countries all over the world.

Today, Haribo is the biggest manufacturer of gummy and jelly

Gelatin

Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...

 sweets in the world, with its products mainly consisting of Gummi Bears, other jelly sweets and liquorice. There are five factories in Germany and 13 throughout the rest of Europe. There are sales offices in almost every country in Europe as well as in the United States and Australia.

Slogans

Haribo's German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 catch phrase is "Haribo macht Kinder froh – und Erwachsene ebenso", which is translated as "Haribo makes children happy – and adults too". The voice of Thomas Gottschalk

Thomas Gottschalk

Thomas Johannes Gottschalk is a German TV host. He is best-known for hosting the popular show Wetten, dass..?, which he has led to a huge success in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol.-Early life:...

 has been connected with the Haribo advertisements since 1991. Slogans used in various languages around the world seem to be variations on the same theme, written to rhyme in most languages. Slogans around the world include:

Language	Slogan	English translation
Bulgarian Bulgarian language Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...	С Харибо сме радостни, Харибо обичаме (S Haribo sme radostni, Haribo obichame)	With Haribo we are happy, Haribo we love
Croatian Croatian language Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...	Haribo veseli sve, velike i malene	Haribo makes everyone happy, grown-ups and little kids
Czech Czech language Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...	Haribo chutná malým, stejně tak i dospělým	Haribo tastes good to children, and also to adults
Danish Danish language Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...	Haribo… den er go’ (old: Luk op for noget godt, luk op for Haribo – den er go)	Haribo… it's good (Open up for something good, open up for Haribo – it's good)
Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...	The happy world of Haribo (old: Haribo maakt kinderen blij - ouderen horen ook daarbij)	(Haribo makes children happy - and that includes grown-ups)
English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...	Kids and grown-ups love it so – the happy world of Haribo	Same Thing
Estonian Estonian language Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...	Haribo teeb lapsed rõõmsaks, isad, emad lõbusaks	Haribo makes children happy, fathers, mothers jolly
Finnish Finnish language Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...	Kids and grown-ups love it so – the happy world of Haribo
French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...	Haribo, c’est beau la vie – pour les grands et les petits	Haribo, life’s beautiful – for grown-ups and little ones
German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....	Haribo macht Kinder froh – und Erwachsene ebenso	Haribo makes children happy – and adults too
Greek Greek language Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...	Haribo δίνει χαρά – σε μεγάλους και παιδιά	Haribo gives happiness – to adults and children
Hungarian Hungarian language Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....	Gyermek felnőtt kedve jó – édes élet Haribo	Kids and grown-ups are in a good mood – sweet is life Haribo
Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...	Haribo è la bontà – che si gusta ad ogni età	Haribo is the goodness – you can enjoy at any age
Norwegian Norwegian language Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...	Haribo… den er go	Haribo… it's good
Polish Polish language Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...	Haribo smak radości	Haribo The taste of joy
Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...	Haribo doces sabores – para os pequenos e os maiores	Haribo sweet flavours – for young and old
Russian Russian language Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...	Детям, взрослым повезло – радость дарит Харибо (Detyam, vzroslym povezlo – radost darit Haribo)	Kids, adults are lucky – happiness is given by Haribo
Slovak Slovak language Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...	Haribo chutí malým, rovnako i dospelým	Haribo tastes good to little ones, and to adults as well
Slovene	Haribo za otroke bo, in odrasle prav tako	Haribo will be for children, and adults too
Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...	Haribo, dulces sabores – para pequeños y mayores or Vive un sabor mágico – ven al mundo Haribo	Haribo, sweet flavours – for young and old Live a magical flavour – come to the Haribo world
Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...	Haribo det smakar bäst - Det gör livet till en fest	Haribo it tastes best - it makes life a celebration
Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...	Çocuk ya da büyük ol, Haribo’yla mutlu ol	(Be) Young or old, be happy with Haribo

Key brands

Haribo's key brands in the UK are Starmix

Starmix

Haribo StarmixDelightful confectionery that caused universal outrage with it's controversial UK advertising campaign. It featured a Caucasian family in situ outside a petrol station, singing/performing a trite musical number with the following lyrics:...

, Tangfastics, Kiddies Supermix, Maoam and Strawbs. They were at one stage the distributor of Pez

PEZ

Pez is the brand name of an Austrian confectionery and the mechanical pocket dispensers for the same...

 products in the United Kingdom but this is no longer the case. Haribo make Pontefract Cakes

Pontefract Cakes

Pontefract cakes are a type of small, roughly circular black sweets measuring approximately 2 cm in diameter and 4 mm thick, made of liquorice, originally manufactured in the Yorkshire town of Pontefract, England.The original name for these small tablets of liquorice is a "Pomfret" cake,...

 at their factory in Pontefract

Pontefract

Pontefract is an historic market town in West Yorkshire, England. Traditionally in the West Riding, near the A1 , the M62 motorway and Castleford. It is one of the five towns in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield and has a population of 28,250...

, West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, and other locations. The Fraise Tagada

Fraise Tagada

The Fraise Tagada is a candy invented in 1969 by the Haribo Company, which invented the gummi bear. The Fraise Tagada is presented in the shape of an over-inflated strawberry covered in fine sugar, colored pink and scented....

 is one of the best-selling varieties in France.

Products

US Products

• Hanging Bags
• Strawberry Wheels

• Brixx
• Fizzy Cola
• TropiFruitti
• Fruit Salad
• Fruity Pasta
• Gold-Bears
• Happy-Cola
• Peaches
• Fruity Frutti
• Raspberries
• Sour S'ghetti
• Strawberries&Cream
• Tangfastics
• Twin Cherries
• Wheels Licorice
• Rattle-Snakes
• Frogs
• Clown Fish
• Mini Rainbow Frogs
• Jelly Babies

http://www.haribo.com/planet/us/info/products.php

US presence

Haribo had been imported into the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for many years by German food importers, and sold at German and other gourmet stores at "gourmet prices", mostly in bulk. At home in Germany Haribo was not an exclusive gourmet product but a mass market candy like jujubes, Life Savers

Life Savers

Life Savers is an American brand of ring-shaped mints and artificially fruit-flavored hard candy. The candy is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in aluminum foil rolls....

 or Hershey's Kisses. When Haribo of America was incorporated in the 1980s in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, Haribo's gummi candies were introduced to the U.S. mass market, through drugstores, grocery stores, discount stores, etc. The packaging was translated into English, and package weights were adjusted to match U.S. candy price points and package sizes. A laydown bag was developed for the U.S. supermarket trade, instead of the hanging bag commonly found in German supermarkets, and a boxed product was developed for theaters.

Once this was done and Haribo products in U.S. style packaging were introduced at confectionery and fancy food shows, Haribo became a popular item. Sales soared the first year and gummi-bears became so popular in the U.S. that Haribo in Germany could not supply enough product, so soon the U.S. market was flooded with German competitors like Trolli

Trolli

Trolli is a brand which was registered in 1975 by Mederer GmbH - Germany. The main production today consists of gummy candies, marshmallows, and soft licorice gums. Trolli's headquarters are located in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany. However, products are sold worldwide to more than 80 countries...

, Black Forest and others.

The Landesmuseum Koblenz

Koblenz

Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...

 (Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

) created a traveling exhibition about the history of Haribo in 2006.

Disputed use of forced labor

Haribo is accused of using Jewish forced labor

Forced labor in Germany during World War II

The use of forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied...

 in its factories during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

but denies it.