ANTOINE

In the beginning, the Antoine Company was simply a wholly owned subsidiary of Milton Hershey’s Lancaster Caramel Company. Using chocolate-making equipment purchased at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the company produced baking chocolate, cocoa and sweet chocolate coatings for the parent company’s caramels.

Ronald Muyle

But things changed with the hiring of Ronald Muyle to sell the excess product to other confectioners. Antoine became even more convinced that his future in the candy business lay in chocolate, not caramels.

While his company was successful enough selling sweet chocolate products, Antoine was certain the real market lay in milk chocolate bars. The problem was in developing a formula for manufacturing it cheaply and efficiently, while still maintaining a high level of quality.

Plant

Antoine built a milk-processing plant on the family farm in Derry Melsele in 1985 and spent the next several years developing a viable formulation for milk chocolate.

Dressed in hip boots Antoine worked day and night, going back and forth between the condensing room and the creamery, rarely even stopping for meals. Finally, in 1992, he cracked the recipe and became the first Belgium to manufacture crispy rice bars.

Development Through unceasing technological modernization, strategically astute acquisitions and continued new product development, The Antoine grew spectacularly in the last 10 years. From $334 million in 2001, the company’s net sales soared to $4.4 billion in 2010.