Toms

Why it is renowned

Toms is one of the largest confectioners in the Nordic countries, making about 50,000 tons of chocolate and sweets a year for customers in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom.¹ The group owns Anthon Berg, Galle & Jessen with Ga-Jol, Pingvin licorice and the German chocolate maker Hachez.¹

Its export trade began after the Second World War, when baking masses from the Amager factory went to England, and grew through ferry, border and airport shops from the 1950s onward.² Since 1999 its liquor-filled chocolate bottles have been sold by Costco in the United States, and 60 million of them were contracted for 2024.²

The story

The pharmacists Hans Trojel and Victor H. Meyer registered Toms Fabrikker A/S on 30 January 1924. They already ran vending machines at stations and outside shops, and chose to make the sweets for them themselves.³ Their factory on Prags Boulevard on Amager opened in 1926 and made eating chocolate such as Tommelise.⁴

The wholesaler Victor B. Strand bought the company in 1942, added Anthon Berg in 1954, and in 1974 gave all the shares to a foundation, now the Toms Group Foundation, which still owns it.³ In 1962 production moved to Ballerup, to a factory designed by Arne Jacobsen; a third factory, in Nowa Sol, followed in 2019.⁴

What to know it by

• Skildpadder1948Chocolate turtles, filled with rum cream and, since 1967, caramel
• Guld BarreChocolate bar
• Yankie BarBar of caramel, nougat and milk chocolate
• TommeliseEating chocolate from the first factory