Ragolds to close following top brand sell-off
operations at the end of the year - only days after it sold its top
cough sweet brands to compatriot manufacturer Storck.
The company, which employs 150 people and is based in Karlsruhe, said that the closure was "unavoidable" and that it saw no lasting improvement in its long-term financial outlook.
Storck, Germany's second largest confectioner, which accounted for around 10.4 per cent of all German confectionery sales in 2003, submitted an application to the Bundeskartellamt (the German competition office) last week to acquire Aterngold and Rachegold - two of Ragolds' best selling cough sweet brands.
According to industry analysts Euromonitor International, the German confectionery market was worth an estimated €7.8 billion in 2003 - of which the chocolate-based confectionery sector accounted for around 70 per cent of this figure (Ferrero is the market leader).
But despite an overall downturn in the German confectionery sector, sugar-based confectionery - particularly the categories of fruit-cream flavoured boiled sweets, gums, jellies and liquorice - have largely managed to avoid the sales-cooling effects of a Europe-wide drive to combat obesity.
Conversely, chocolate value sales declined by around 1 per cent during 2004 to €5.36 billion, while volume sales fell 3 per cent to 684,000 tonnes.
Ragolds accounted for 0.86 per cent of Germany's overall confectionery sales in 2003 - down from the previous year's 0.90 per cent - and its top brands at the time included Granini Fruchtbonbons and Creamfuls.
