Kaiser’s history“Candy-Kaiser” has remained true to its origins –
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| 1849 | The confectioner Friedrich Gottlob Kayser (1824 - 1904) invents a recipe for cough candies, which are sold under the name of “cobble stones” in his pastry shop on the market square in Waiblingen. | |
| 1889 | One day, after walking in the woods and chewing on some young pine shoots, Gottlob Kayser’s son Theodor (1862 - 1930), a trained confectioner, further develops the “cobble stone” recipe and starts to produce “cough remedy candies as a recognised unrivalled cure for coughs, hoarseness, chest and lung catarrh” (advertisement in the 1889 local Waiblingen paper “Remstalbote”) under the name of “chest caramels”. Thus began the factory production of confectionery with the products “Kaiser’s chest caramels” and “Kaiser’s peppermint candies for stomach sufferers” as well as other special products such as “Kaiser’s malt extract”, “Kaiser’s baby farina” and the tonic “Diasana”. |
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| 1894 | Candies “with the 3 fir trees” are advertised for the first time. | |
| 1895 | The trademark “Kaiser’s chest caramels with the 3 fir trees” is registered with the German Patent Office in the trademark role in Berlin; it is one of the oldest officially registered trademarks in the country. The rooms on the market square become too small, so the company moves into a new roomy location in the Bahnhofstraße, where the company still has its main office today. Over the next few years, the booming company also expands abroad. |
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| 1902 | Theodor Kaiser has his family name altered back to the correct historical spelling – from Kayser to Kaiser. | |
| 1904 | The company employs 21 employees as well as numerous home workers. By this time, it is one of the five largest enterprises in Baden-Württemberg. International advertising soon makes “Kaiser’s chest caramels” known throughout the whole of Europe. |
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| 1910 | 105 members of staff are now employed. | |
| 1916 | There is a sugar crisis. Kaiser writes to his “highly honuored customers”, asking them to confirm in writing the efficacy of Kaiser candies, especially that of the chest caramels. This enables the company to document that it requires more sugar than its quantity assigned. In fact, 15 000 testimonies are sent in by customers, all certified by a public notary. |
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| 1930 | Theodor Kaiser dies in December after a short illness. Shortly before in September, he is awarded honorary citizenship by the town of Waiblingen. After some years of apprenticeship and travel in the confectionery business both at home and abroad, his son Friedrich (1900 - 1988) takes over his father’s business. |
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| 1939 | Outbreak of war. Kaiser is one of the biggest brands and companies in Germany and far beyond its borders. As a consequence of war, Kaiser loses all its properties in Eastern Europe and has to re-establish sales completely. |
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| 1958 | New premises are built to enable modern confectionery manufacture; up till now, despite factory production, many processes still had to be carried out by hand. | |
| 1964 | Friedrich Kaiser asks his American son-in-law, John G. Updike, husband of his oldest daughter Ellen, for assistance. The Updike family moves from America to Germany. | |
| 1980 | Friedrich Kaiser resigns as executive director of the company and hands over management to John G. Updike. | |
| 1988 | The year Friedrich Kaiser dies. | |
| 1992 | John G. Updike’s son Thomas enters the business. | |
| 2002 | Thomas Updike takes over sole management of the company when his father goes into well-earned retirement. | |
| 2010 | John G. Updike dies at the age of 81. |
