Top 10 global chocolate manufacturers

Kraft Foods Inc, which recently changed its name to Mondelēz International, so that Kraft Foods focuses on the North American foods business whereas Mondelēz International focuses on the global snacks business, tops the list with a net sales of $19,965 million. Mondelēz International makes Toblerone and Cadbury Dairy Milk

 

Mars Inc, makers of the famous Mars, Twix and Bounty comes next with a net sales of $16,200 million. Mars operates in six business segments: chocolate, petcare, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, Food, Drinks, and Symbioscience.

 

Nestlé S.A. is a Swiss multinational nutritional and health-related consumer goods company headquartered in Switzerland. It is the largest food company in the world measured by revenues and as of 2011 its net sales stood at $12,808 million. It’s known for Kit Kat and Smarties chocolates and for its brand of Nescafé coffee.

 

The Ferrero SpA group, best known for their spherical chocolate filled with hazelnuts called the Ferrero Rocher is next with a net sales of $9,612 million. Ferrero SpA is a private company owned by the Ferrero family and has been described as "one of the world's most secretive firms." The group also produces the famour Nutella brand of chocolate spreads.

 

Perhaps one of the most recognizable brands in chocolate, Hershey’s is next with net sales of $6,112 million. Hershey is one of the oldest chocolate companies in the United States, and reportedly an American icon for its chocolate bar. Hershey's products are sold in about sixty countries worldwide.

 

Talking about chocolates, Lindt & Sprüngli AG cannot be far behind. The company clocked a net sales of $2,796 million. The group also has eight chocolate cafés in Australia and are planning in the earliest of stages for the first United States chocolate café in Wrentham, MA.

 

Established in 1903, August Storck KG is a German sweets producer with headquarters in Berlin, with a net sales of $2,205 million.The initial purpose of the company was to manufacture all products by hand and the founder, August Storck, began with three employees, a cooking kettle and a panning kettle. They are the makers of Werther’s Original and Merci.

 

Turkey’s Yildiz Holding started in 1944, which acquired Godiva Chocolatier, clocked a net sales of $2,095 million. With 54 factories, 9 of which are in foreign countries, Yildiz Holding employs a workforce of 24,400 and produces a range of products including biscuits, chocolate, edible oil, dairy products, cullinary products, baby food and packaging materials.

 

Japan’s Meiji Co with net sales of $1,791 million is next. Initially established as a dairy company in 1917, became Meiji Co., Ltd.in 2009 with the JV of Meiji Seika Kaisha, Ltd. and Meiji Dairies Corporation which now sees the food and healthcare businesses. Meiji also owns the United States cookie manufacturer D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Company based in Pennsylvania.

 

The Arcor Group is an Argentine food company specialized in confectionery, founded on July 5, 1951. The group is the world’s largest producer of candies and the largest exporter of confectionery of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. It clocked a net sales of $1,716 million.

Ladies special: New eye candy of 2012

Tall, dark, handsome, cute smile, dreamy eyes… we could just go on and on about this SOTY hunk. Siddharth Malhotra is surely one of most good looking men to have debuted in Bollywood in the recent years. Don’t you think?

 

Though Prithviraj Sukumaran is already an established star in the South, he made his Bollywood debut this year. With his well toned physique and smoldering looks he set the screen ablaze in Aiyyaa.

 

Uber duper cute! Girls just loved Varun Dhawan in SOTY. Not only does he have a great body and dances fabulous, but he did receive great feedback for his acting too.

 

Now this is a guy with multiple talents! He anchors, sings and acts! He stole the show in the laugh riot Vicky Donor and swept all the women off of their feet with his song Pani Da Rang. We look forward to seeing more of you Ayushmaan!

 

Man can Arjun Kapoor act! If you’ve seen Ishaqzaade you’d certainly agree with us. Great acting skills apart we totally adore Arjun’s killer smile. Don’t you?

 

Pulkit Samrat debuted in Bittoo Boss this year and girls just dote over his oh-so-dreamy eyes.

New Year's Eve celebrations around the world

People around the world ring in 2013.

Why NYC Drops an 11,875 Pound Ball on New Year's Eve

The tradition dates back to December 31, 1907, though the balls have changed along with technology. On New Year's Eve, a number of word class cities will harken in 2013 with giant fireworks displays. In New York City, a giant ball suspended above Times Square will slowly descend at midnight.
Why?
Until 1903, the largest New Year's Eve gathering of New Yorkers took place at Trinity Church on Wall Street and Broadway. The New York Times described the scene in 1897: "The crowds came from every section of the city, and among the thousands, who cheered or tooted tin horns, as the chimes were rung out on the night, were many from New Jersey, Long Island, and even Staten Island." Things were much the same for another half-dozen years. But as December 31, 1904 approached, many party-goers were persuaded to attend a different celebration far uptown.
Until that time, the area where 7th Avenue, Broadway and 42 Street met was called Longacre Square. The Detroit Publishing Company sells a print showing what it looked like back in those days:

That narrow building rising all by itself, then the second tallest in New York City, is the just-finished headquarters of The New York Times newspaper. Its publisher, Alfred Ochs, had successfully lobbied city leaders to change Longacre Square's name to Times Square earlier that year. He then resolved to throw a New Year's Eve celebration that would be the talk of the town. "An all-day street festival culminated in a fireworks display set off from the base of the tower," according to an official history published by the Times Square District Management Association, "and at midnight the joyful sound of cheering, rattles and noisemakers from the over 200,000 attendees could be heard, it was said, from as far away as Croton-on-Hudson, thirty miles north."
An annual event was born -- but two years later, the city prohibited the fireworks display. "Ochs was undaunted," the official history continues. "He arranged to have a large, illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball lowered from the tower flagpole precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908." Thus the origin of today's celebration.

One Times Square has been home to a ball drop ever since, save in 1942 and 1943, when wartime light restrictions caused it to be canceled. The ball itself has changed with technology. The original ball of iron and wood was replaced in 1920 with a 400 pound orb of all iron. In 1955, an aluminum replacement weighed in at a considerably lighter 150 pounds, and was adorned with 180 light bulbs. The New York Times ran a photograph of that ball in 1978, (six years after Dick Clark starting broadcasting in Times Square). It's my favorite of any I've seen:

Though its bulbs were changed in the 1980s to make it look like an apple, that ball more or less survived until 1995, when it was "upgraded" with aluminum skin, rhinestones and computer controls. Are rhinestones ever an upgrade? Perhaps not. The new ball didn't last long. Did Y2K play any part in that first computerized ball's 1999 replacement? Despite some searching I couldn't find a definitive answer. In any case, a new ball of crystal dropped to mark the millennium.

Reuters

In 2007, "modern LED technology replaced the light bulbs of the past for the 100th anniversary of the New Year's Eve ball." (pdf) And in 2008, today's gaudy orb debuted in its permanent location atop One Times Square (the Times sold the building way back in 1961).  The current owner of the building is also the owner of the iconic ball, and can visit it on this roof:

Reuters

Weighing 11,875 pounds, today's ball is technically a geodesic sphere with a 12 foot diameter, covered in 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles with various designs invisible to the spectators below.
Reuters The triangles are bolted to 672 LED modules, each of them containing red, blue, white, and green LEDs ("light-emitting diodes," if you'd started to wonder). Says an official fact sheet (pdf), "The Ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square." Most experts put the maximum number of colors distinguishable by the human eye at 10 million. If an 11,875 pound crystal ball is displaying many millions of colors no one can see are they really there?

Reuters

One wonders what material will form the next replacement ball. A perfectly spherical "Retina Display" sponsored by Apple? A hologram that obviates the need for a physical ball? A giant, genetically engineered peach conceived when the Williamsburg hipsters of today age into leadership positions and meld their ironic brand of throwback nostalgia with a Monsanto sponsorship?
That might look something like the artist Klew's rendering of James and friends atop the Empire State Building*:

Come what may, Dick Clark protege Ryan Seacrest will doubtless be there to update us. But am I alone in thinking that no orb, giant peach very much included, will ever be as spectacular as a modern analog of the fireworks display that NYC had until they were prohibited more than a century ago? As a point of comparison, here's what happened on a recent New Years Eve in Berlin:

Reuters

Better, isn't it?

Newsmakers Ryan Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy Prepare for a Rockin' New Year's Eve

Twenty-five stories up, on the roof of One Times Square, the height can be a bit unsettling. But at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, millions of eyes will once again be fixed upon this spot.
Since 1907, the iconic Times Square Ball has dropped down the 77-foot pole here to mark the end of the old and the beginning of the new.
As the ball goes through final preparations for the big day, the hosts of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," Ryan Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy, are also preparing for a bittersweet celebration - one that will be missing a very important person. For the first time in almost 40 years of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," there will be no Dick Clark.
First formally telecast on NBC on Dec. 31, 1972, Dick Clark took over hosting in 1975 and turned the event into an annual phenomenon. After a stroke kept Clark from hosting the 2005 celebration, Ryan Seacrest was brought on in 2006 as co-host.
"It'll be emotional for us," says Seacrest, "because he's not going to be with us for the first time ever."
2013 will mark the first year for Seacrest without Clark around. And yet, despite Clark's absence, the spirit of excitement that he embodied will continue.
"We'll reflect, but we'll also have some big celebratory moments with live performances," Seacrest says.
Hosting the performances can be a challenge as coverage switches between multiple venues. The key, says Seacrest, is in one important tip from Clark that will always stay with Seacrest: "Make it seamless. Make it comfortable. Make it seem like anybody can do that job."
The secret behind that advice might just be in the broadcast itself. From on-the-ground reporters to big-name musical acts, "New Year's Rockin' Eve" can be an energetic event as it seeks to capture the excitement of the night.
"You don't have to say much because there are so many pictures and great shots to look at," says Seacrest.
In fact, one of those great shots happened last year when McCarthy planted an unforgettable kiss on one lucky New York cop.
As for this year, will another guy get his New Year's resolution fulfilled with a midnight kiss? Has a new tradition been added to this already historic show? McCarthy is counting on it.
"I don't know who I'm going to smooch with, but I'm going to smooch with somebody!" she says.
Yet, in the midst of all the romance and excitement, the magic of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" for Seacrest is in its ability to bring people closer.
"In a universe and world where there's so much conflict and so much chaos, that in the few moments that we're all gathered together, standing in Times Square and watching on TV ... you feel like we're all on the same page," he says.