Wawel Gorzka 64% cocoa with orange peel

Wawel is one of Poland's most storied confectionery brands, with a history dating back to 1898 when Adam Piasecki founded his first confectionery workshop in Kraków. The brand grew significantly over the 20th century, merging with other local manufacturers like Pischinger and Suchard's Polish operations in 1951 to form the Wawel Confectionery Plant. Today, all production is centralized in a modern facility in Dobczyce, Poland, which opened in 2006.

While Wawel remains a quintessentially Polish brand and is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE: WWL), its ownership structure has an international dimension. Since 2007, the German family-owned company Hosta International AG, based in Münchenstein, Switzerland, has been the majority shareholder, currently holding approximately 52.13% of the company's shares. This partnership has allowed Wawel to maintain its traditional recipes, such as the 'Gorzka' dark chocolate series, while leveraging global distribution and modern production standards.