Wonka (formerly Nestlé Candy Shop and The Willy Wonka Candy Company) was a

confectionery Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates, although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two bro ...

brand owned and licensed by the Swiss corporation

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

. In 2018, the branding and production rights were sold to the Ferrero Group.

History

Origins

The previous inception of the Wonka brand came from materials licensed from the British author

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...

. His classic 1964 children's novel, ''

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1964 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. The story was origina ...

'', and its film adaptations are the sources of both the packaging and the marketing styles of the Wonka brand. Dahl had licensed the "Wonka" name to film director

Mel Stuart Mel Stuart (born Stuart Solomon; September 2, 1928 – August 9, 2012) was an American film director and producer who often worked with producer David L. Wolper, at whose production firm he worked for 17 years, before going freelance. E ...

. The film's producer, David L. Wolper, convinced the

Quaker Oats Company The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food Conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and ...

to advance $3 million to finance the film in exchange for the right to use the Wonka name to sell candy bars. Quaker, which had no previous experience in the film industry, bought the rights to the book and financed the picture to promote their new "Wonka Bar". The title of the film was changed to ''

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical film, musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart from a screenplay by Roald Dahl, based on his 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. It stars Gene Wilder as chocol ...

'' for promotional purposes. The brand was launched on 17 May 1971, one month before the release of the novel's first film adaptation on 30 June 1971. In 1975, Breaker Confections was acquired by Sunmark Corporation of

Saint Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, US. In 1980, the Breaker Confections brand name was changed to "Willy Wonka Brands" in an attempt to develop the "Wonka" brand image. The company was sold in 1986 to

Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery Rowntree Mackintosh plc (file no. 00051491) ( ), Trade name, trading as Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery, was an English confectionery company based in York, England. It was formed by the merger of Rowntree's#History, Rowntree's and Mackintosh ...

of the UK, who were then acquired in 1988 by Swiss company

. In 1993, Nestlé renamed it the "Willy Wonka Candy Company", and then "Nestlé Candy Shop" in 2015. The original "Wonka Bars" never saw store shelves due to factory production problems before the film's release; however, subsequent Wonka product releases were highly successful, including the

Everlasting Gobstopper The Everlasting Gobstopper is a gobstopper candy from Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''. According to its creator Willy Wonka, it was intended "for children with very little pocket money". It not only chang ...

in 1976 and Nerds in 1983. From 1988 to 2017, Nestlé sold sweets and chocolate under the Wonka brand name in numerous countries. The cessation of the Wonka brand was due to the impending sale of branding rights to the Ferrero Group. To promote the 2023 film '' Wonka'', Ferrero revived the Wonka brand name for promotional "Magic Hat Gummies".

Acquisition by Ferrero

On 18 January 2018, Ferrero announced that it would be purchasing the Nestlé US candy business and all of its US products, office locations, and manufacturing plants. The deal gave Nestlé a value of approximately $US2.8 billion.

Products

Bottle Caps A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stopp ...

Fun Dip Fun Dip is a candy manufactured by the Ferrara Candy Company. The candy has been on the market in the United States and Canada since the 1940s and was originally called Lik-M-Aid. It was originally manufactured by Fruzola, and then Sunline Inc., ...

* Laffy Taffy * Nerds *

Pixy Stix Pixy Stix are a sweet and sour colored powdered candy usually packaged in a wrapper that resembles a drinking straw. The candy is lightly poured into the mouth from the wrapper, which is made out of either plastic or paper. Pixy Stix contain dext ...

Runts image:Vendstar3000.JPG, Runts in a bulk vending machine (on the right) with the 2007 and 2008 flavor lineup Runts are crunchy candies sold by Ferrara Candy Company. First seen on the market in 1982, the candies are in the shape, color, and ...

Spree Spree may refer to: Film and television * ''The Spree'', a 1998 American television film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace * ''Spree'' (film), a 2020 American film starring Joe Keery * "Spree" (''Numbers''), an episode of the television show ''Number ...

SweeTarts SweeTarts (; officially stylized as SweeTARTS) are sweet and sour candy, candies invented under the direction of Menlo F. Smith, CEO of Sunline Inc., in 1962. The candy was created using the same small basic recipe as the already popular Pixy St ...

* SweeTarts Chewy Sours * SweeTarts Soft & Chewy Ropes * Wonka Ice Cream (Peel-A-Pops and Push Ups) * Mixups (large bags containing a variety of different "Fun Size" wonka candies) * Randoms ( Rowntree's Randoms in the UK, made and sold in the US under the Wonka brand)

Previous products

* Chewy Runts * DinaSour Eggs *

Dweebs ''Dweebs'' is an American sitcom that ran on CBS from September 22 to November 3, 1995. It failed to find an audience and was cancelled after 7 episodes, leaving 3 unaired. Synopsis The show stars Farrah Forke as Carey, a technophobic woman hir ...

* Everlasting Hot Gobstoppers * Sour Gobstoppers * Longlasting Gobstoppers * Fizzy Jerkz * FruiTart Chews * Fruit Marvels * Gummy Nerds * Oompas *

Punky's Punky's was a candy sold by Nestlé (via The Willy Wonka Candy Company) in the late-1980s and early-1990s. They came in a variety of sweet and sour fruit flavors. Punky's were small, oval in shape, and had a somewhat rough texture, with some sli ...

* Rinky Dinks * Scrumdidilyumptious * Shock Tarts Sour Gum Balls * Super Skrunch * Tangy Bloops * Tangy Bumps * Tangy Bunnys *

Tart 'n' Tinys Tart 'n' Tinys are small, fruit-flavored candies distributed by Leaf Brands. Tart 'n' Tiny's were originally manufactured by the Wonka company in five colors, bluish-purple (grape), yellow (lemon), orange (orange), red (cherry), and green (lime). ...

* Tinglerz * Volcano Rocks * Wacky Wafers * Wegg (UK only) * Willy Wonka's Guppies * Willy Wonka's Squids * Willy Wonka's Watermelon * Wonkalate (UK only) *

Wonka Bar The Wonka Bar was originally a fictional chocolate bar, introduced as a key story point in the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Wonka Bars appear in each film adaptation of the novel: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Fact ...

Wonka Biscuits Wonka Biscuits were a type of chocolate-coated biscuit manufactured by Nestlé under The Willy Wonka Candy Company brand in the UK. They were only available during mid-2002. They came in two varieties: a Golden Cruncher Biscuit (similar to McVit ...

(UK only) * Wonka Daredevils * Wonka Donutz *

Xploder Xploder is a brand of game cheats and multimedia devices for games consoles, similar to Action Replay. Xploder products have been released for Dreamcast, PS2, PlayStation, PSP, Xbox, GameCube, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, PC and ot ...

References

External links

* {{Charlie and the Chocolate Factory * Food and drink companies established in 1971 Food and drink companies disestablished in 2018 Candy British chocolate companies