The History of the Wedel Brand

The Wedel Chocolate is more than 150 years old

Wedel is the oldest chocolate brand in Poland and at the same time one of the oldest Polish brands. Its history began more than 150 years ago.

Everything started when Germany-born Karol Ernest Wedel, having received his education in Paris, Berlin, and London and completed several years’ apprenticeship at Karol Gronhert’s confectionery in Warsaw, opened his own confectionery at ul. Miodowa in Warsaw. Wedel’s considerable advantage over his competition was his specialisation in chocolate products, a precious rarity in 19th century Warsaw.

In no more than a few years after the establishment of the confectionery, Wedel’s sweets gained wide popularity among the Varsovians. No wonder, since the customers could feast on delicacies similar to those described in a newspaper advertisement from 1859: My factory constantly stores a variety of most delicate kinds of steam chocolate to drink and consume in the best of tastes, in significant selection, produced from the best cocoa and with strong aroma, being sold at truly reasonable prices.

Wedel’s chocolates had in fact became so widely known, that they soon came to be... forged. Because of that, in 1869 Karol Wedel published the following announcement in the local press:

From this day forward any bar of chocolate coming from my factory shall bear the C. E. Wedel factory seal, and each pound pack shall bear my own handwritten signature .... The custom was later taken over by Karol’s son, Emil Wedel, whose signature, with its elegant, decorative flourish, turned in time into the commonly recognised symbol of exquisite chocolate.

Emil Wedel took the reins of the company from his father in 1862. Thanks to his bold decisions and investments the range of products, the network of company stores, and the range of sales (to name only a few improvements) grew considerably. The production of Wedel confectionery tripled during his time.

A monument to Emil Wedel’s work took on the shape of the house at ul. Szpitalna in Warsaw, built in 1893-1894. In the back of the house a modern confectionery factory was built, and in the front of the house itself the still-existing Sklep Staroświecki (Old Time Store) and Pijalnia Czekolady (Chocolate Lounge) were opened.

A milestone in the company’s history was its transfer to the hands of Jan Wedel, the son of Emil. It was his decision to build a new factory and move the establishment to the Praga district of the city. And thus one of the state-of-the-art manufactures of the Second Polish Republic was born, commencing operation in 1934 and rapidly developing with each passing year. It was then that the recipes for the famous Ptasie Mleczko, Mieszanka Wedlowska (The Wedel Mix), and the Jedyna (The One) chocolate originated.

In but a few years the company’s exporting policy and the interest in its products caused Wedel chocolate to be regularly sent by a specially designated plane to the company store in Paris, to stores in London, North America, and even Japan.

In 1946 the company ceased to belong to the Wedel family, becoming instead the property of a series of new owners, including, for several years, PepsiCo; in 1999, under the marriage to Britain’s oldest chocolate company, Wedel became Cadbury Wedel, part of world’s largest confectionery company, Cadbury Schweppes. What remained unchanged, however, was the traditional taste of the Wedel chocolate; and despite the flow of time, new generations of chocolate lovers recognize the achievements of Emil Wedel. His sophisticated signature adorns Poland’s most popular chocolate products, and during its over 150 years the Wedel brand became the favourite brand of Poles, dear to the hearts of many.