successor cloetta founded 1940 headquarters oosterhout the netherlands and stockholm sweden products candy gum pastilles owner cvc capital partners nordic capital number of employees 2 500 website www.leaf.eu not to be confused with leaf brands . leaf international bv was a confectionery company . contents 1 history and acquisitions 2 products 3 employees and factories 4 brands 5 company history 6 references 7 external links history and acquisitions edit the leaf candy company was founded in the 1920s . after several mergers and acquisitions leaf merged with the swedish confectionery company cloetta and dropped the leaf name . 1 products edit leaf products included sugared and sugar free gum pastilles candy liquorices peppermints chocolate nougat sweeteners and chews . employees and factories edit leaf had sales of approximately 527m 2010 and 2 400 employees . it has 11 factories in seven countries . leaf wws owned by cvc capital partners nordic capital and management . bengt baron was the ceo of leaf . brands edit red band netherlands l kerol sweden malaco sweden saila italy sportlife netherlands belgium jenkki finland chewits united kingdom xylifresh netherlands king netherlands sisu finland dietor italy galatine italy sperlari italy tupla finland mynthon finland dietorelle italy venco netherlands ahlgrens bilar sweden company history edit the company was founded by sol s. leaf in chicago illinois in the 1920s . this and other companies he founded were merged to create leaf brands in 1947 . its history includes a number of mergers acquisitions and divisions as well as several name changes . in 1940 the leaf confectionery company introduced rainblo bubble gum . in 1947 the overland candy company makers of whoppers brand malted milk candy merged with the chicago biscuit company leaf confectionary company and leaf machinery to form leaf brands . in 1948 leaf issued its first set of baseball cards the first post world war ii color set . 2 in 1949 leaf brands reintroduced whoppers malted milk balls . in the 1960 whoppers malted milk balls brand and other products manufactured by leaf brands were purchased by w. r. grace and company who sold them back in 1976 . in 1983 leaf acquired jolly rancher . 3 also in 1983 the leaf candy company in illinois was purchased by huhtam ki oyj of helsinki finland and merged it with phoenix candy the maker of now and later and another candy company it had acquired all under the leaf name . 4 5 huhtam ki oyj acquired the donruss trading card division of general mills at about the same time and merged it into leaf . 6 7 in 1986 leaf purchased some confectionery brands from beatrice foods maker of milk duds . also in 1986 leaf inc. sold phoenix candy to kouri capital a finnish investment firm changing its name to phoenix confections . 4 in 1988 hollywood brands maker of payday and zero was purchased from sara lee by huhtam ki oyj and became part of leaf inc. 7 8 in 1989 the heath bar was purchased by leaf . 7 in the 1990 leaf became one of the world s top 10 confectionery companies ; it was especially strong in non chocolate products such as pastilles and chewing gum . 5 by 1993 leaf was the fourth largest candy producer in north america . 7 in 1996 he hershey foods corporation acquired the leaf north american confectionery operations from huhtam ki oyj . over the next few years leaf manufacturing and sales became integrated into existing hershey manufacturing and sales operations effectively ending leaf s existence as a separate operating unit in the us . 3 5 9 in 1999 leaf s european and asian business with brands such as l kerol jenkki and sportlife was sold to the dutch company csm which added the brands to their confectionery unit which already included malaco red band and venco . in 200 csm acquired continental sweets with market positions in france belgium the netherlands and the uk . in 2001 csm acquired socalbe based in italy along with brands such as dietorelle and dietor . in 2005 csm sold its confectionery unit to two private equity firms cvc capital partners and nordic capital that restored the leaf name and continue to own the company today . in 2007 leaf acquired cadbury italy including the brand saila . on february 15 2012 leaf merged with the swedish confectionery company cloetta . 1 the new company is called cloetta . references edit a b leaf and cloetta merger completed . retrieved 2012 02 26 . steve s type set webpage . retrieved 2012 03 20 . a b hershey s official jolly rancher webpage . retrieved 2006 03 05 . a b farley and sather s official site . a b c our journey . huhtam ki oyj . retrieved 2006 03 08 . about donruss . donruss company . retrieved 2006 03 08 . a b c d dyslin john july 1993 . leaf branches out . prepared foods . hershey s official zero webpage . summary . annual report . hershey foods corporation . 1998 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title leaf international & oldid 743340123 categories companies established in 1947baseball cardsconfectionery companies of the united statesthe hershey company brandshistory of chicago1947 establishments in illinoisorganisations based in north brabantoosterhout navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschnederlandssuomisvenska edit links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 05 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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