Győri is a brand name for biscuit products and candies owned by the Győri Keksz Ltd.,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. In its early years the production took place in

Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia region, and – halfway between Budapest and Vienna – situated on one of ...

with the help of only 50 professionals. In its most successful years, however, the company employed around 1000 (later even 2000) people and offered 334 different goods.

History

The predecessor of the company was established from Hermann Bach’s steam mill in Győrsziget and became the first biscuit factory of

, in 1880. In 1892, however, Lajos Koestlin bought the factory. Koestlin had already had a biscuit factory in

Bregenz Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

but the competition was so stiff there that he moved to

and brought all his equipment for biscuit-production with him in 6 stock-cars. He also invited 50 professionals and restarted work in the new country in 1900. The products of his factory included biscuits, rusk, ‘cvibak’ (rusk for the army), wafers and gingerbread. The company became successful, before the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

it already employed about 1000 workers. As the fights started and the needs of the citizens of

and of the army increased rapidly, the company fulfilled a rising number of orders – the products of the Koestlin factory were demanded all over the

Austro-Hungarian Monarchy Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

and the factory in

became the acropolis of Hungarian biscuit-production. After the

the production was cut down because of the lack of ingredients, and the number of employees was reduced to around 500. To balance the situation, the factory started producing chocolates and bonbons in 1922 and candies in 1925. By 1926 the company was exporting to 14 countries, and in the 1930s it had 334 different kinds of products. In 1931 the company was reformed as a Public Limited Company and in spite of the effects of the Great Depression, it retained its variety of products. Under the German occupation, however, it was declared a factory for war efforts and restarted the production of only biscuits, wafers and rusk. In 1945 the factory again had to suffer from the lack of money and ingredients, so the production was suspended for 4 months after which the factory was ordered by the mayor of

to serve the public demands. The production halls were even let to the coalition of the Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest and the Leipziger Vilmos Szesz és Cukorgyár (Liquor and Sugar Factory of Vilmos Leipziger). Although being nationalised in 1947, the factory was declared to be independent again in 1948 by the Minister of Agriculture of the time, and in 1950 the factory was reformed for the third time as the Győri Keksz és Ostyagyár Nemzeti Vállalat (National Company of Biscuit and Wafer Factory of Győr). In 1963 the status of the factory changed again, since all the 6 confectionery factories of the country were converted into a general one, namely the Magyar Édesipari Vállalat (Hungarian Confectionery Company). In the 1980s the factory was modernised several times and after the change of regime, the Győri Keksz és Ostyagyár (Biscuit and Wafer Factory of

) was privatised by the British company, the

United Biscuits United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In ...

in 1991 and was registered under the name Győri Keksz Ltd. Between the late 1990s and the early years of the new century several important changes came into force: the headquarters of the company was shifted from

Budaörs Budaörs (; german: Wudersch; hr, Jerša, or ; la, Vicus Teuto) is a town in Pest County, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. Location A suburb of Budapest, the town lies among the Buda and Csiki hills and the Tétény plateau in the Buda ...

in 1997, the French

Danone Danone S.A. () is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris. It was founded in Barcelona, Spain. It is listed on Euronext Paris where it is a component of the CAC 40 stock market index. Some of the company's products are ...

bought the company from the

in 2000 and in 2007 the

division together with the Győri Keksz Ltd. was bought by the

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

. The headquarters of the company is presently in Székesfehérvár but production does not take place within the borders of

any more.

Product history

At the very beginning of the history of the factory (in the times of Lajos Koestlin) produced biscuits, rusk, ‘cvibak’ (rusk for the army), wafers and gingerbread. In addition to these, in 1912, the company bought the licence of the Albert keksz (Albert biscuit – probably named after the husband of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

) from the British T&T Vicars Company. In 1922 this repertoire was broadened with chocolates, bonbons and candies in 1922 and in 1925 respectively. Besides these, by 1926 jellies were included in the offer. In 1963, the production of the chocolate figures, bonbons, Christmas candies ( szaloncukor), jellies, chewing gums, drops and rusks was suspended but in return, the factory got the right from other factories to produce gingerbread, wafers and babapiskóta (a kind of sweet sponge-cake). In 1968, after the factory was enlarged by another division, the production of baking powder, vanilla-sugar, custard-powder and tea-flavourings could start. In 1976 due to a licence contract with the

Dr. Oetker Dr. Oetker () is a German multinational company that produces baking powder, cake mixes, frozen pizza, pudding, cake decoration, cornflakes, party candles, and various other products. The company is a wholly owned branch of the Oetker Group, ...

, the supply was broadened again. Moreover, in 1980 the Győri Keksz received the licence of the Negro (A kind of candy known as the ‘chimney-sweep of the throat.’ Its original flavour was anise-menthol but today it is produced in various flavours; for instance, honey, eucalyptus and cherry-menthol.) After forming a joint venture with the HAAS Company (Linz, Austria), the factory (under the name Hungarocandy Kft.) started the production of the PEZ candies (a kind of pressed candy).

Products today

Today’s offer can be grouped along 10 categories: *the ‘JóReggelt’ products: corn biscuits with various flavours *the ‘Győri Édes’ products: short biscuits with various flavours and sponge-cakes with 3 kind of fillings *the ‘Negro’ products: candies with or without filling in 7 flavours *the ‘Pilóta’ products: short biscuits with cream or jelly filling or with chocolate covering *the ‘Tuc’ products: salty crackers in salt, ham or paprika flavours *candies in 4 different flavours *the ‘Győri Nápolyi’ products: wafers in 7 different flavours *the ‘Albert’ and ‘Korpovit’ biscuits *the ‘Tele’ products: salty crackers in 6 different flavours *‘Háztartási keksz’: plain biscuit

References

*http://www.gyorikeksz.hu *http://hvg.hu/magyarmarka/20050329gyorikeksz.aspx *http://www.mfor.hu/cikkek/Edes_gyori_gurigak.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Gyori Keksz Food and drink companies of Hungary Hungarian brands Győr 1880 establishments in Hungary