Marabou is a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 brand, which has been the most successful ever since it was launched in 1916. The distinctive brand was founded by the Norwegian chocolatier Johan Throne Holst

Johan Throne Holst

Johan Throne Holst , was a Norwegian industrialist and politician for the Liberal Left Party ....

 (1868-1946) who already had launched the same chocolate recipe in Norway under the name Freia

Freia (chocolate)

Freia is a Norwegian chocolate candy manufacturing company. The company is famous for Freia Melkesjokolade and Kvikk Lunsj, as well as for other candy and dessert products.-History:...

 with great success.

Johan's second son, Henning, took over Sweden's first chocolate factory in Sundbyberg, just outside of Stockholm in 1918. He was in charge of creating the brands, which are still present today; Japp, Daim, Twist, Fortuna and Non Stop. The factory is in Upplands Väsby

Upplands Väsby

Upplands Väsby is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 35,977 inhabitants in 2005.-Overview:...

 north of Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

. The first Marabou chocolate to be established was Milk Chocolate (Mjölkchoklad), which was produced using the same recipe as Freia. In the 1950s, a caramel was added in the chocolate.

At the end of the 1960s, the symbol of Marabou was changed from a stork to the marabou rounded “M”. It was designed by Sigvard Bernadotte. This also marked the beginning of the first commercials starring Yvonne Lombard

Yvonne Lombard

Yvonne Lombard, is a Swedish actress. Born in Stockholm, Lombard studied at the Royal Dramatic Theatre there, where she trained between 1948 and 1951 with the likes of Max von Sydow, and Ingrid Thulin. She has performed in several films, in TV series and in the theatre...

 who created the slogan "Mmm... Marabou!". Marabou chocolate is widely available in Sweden in assorted varieties.

Freia and Marabou later merged, and, in 1993, were purchased by Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...

 for 3 billion Norwegian kroner

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

. Marabou chocolate is available in a number of European countries and was until September 2011 sold by IKEA

IKEA

IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...

in the UK, the US, Canada, Spain, Poland and Australia.