No. 1 on the sweet biscuits market: at Bahlsen over 2,500 staff produce some 142,000 tons of cookies every year.

A golden cookie for the cookie monster

Once again Bahlsen can rejoice at an anniversary. We already covered the 80th anniversary of salt sticks last year. About twelve months later it is the turn of Leibniz cookies. In honour of these “toothed” sweet biscuits there will be a special edition launched and, needless to say, the commonly known traditional packaging.

The classical packaging format: ideal for satisfying hunger between meals and for feeding not one but several hungry mouths. © Bahlsen GmbH & Co. KG

With 52 teeth and in 55 countries

He served as an inspiration for the name of the cookie, which has sent people all over the world into raptures for more than a century now: the universal scholar Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz from Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony. This is also where the family business is headquartered and where the triumphant march of the crunchy cookie started in 1891. Despite its age the “old-timer” still has all its teeth: 52 in total. And its business success has been equally stable: more than two billion biscuits were sold in over 55 countries in 2015 alone. By the company’s own accounts, Bahlsen ranks first on the German sweet biscuits market with a market share of nearly 12% and sales worth some EUR 535 million.

Even before Henry Ford, company founder Hermann Bahlsen was the first producer in Europe to introduce assembly lines in his factories in 1905, thereby replacing traditional production in baking rooms.

Hermann Bahlsen imported the term “cakes” from England in 1911. Since the Germans had difficulties in pronouncing the word, Bahlsen invented the word “Keks”, which – several years later – was included in Duden, the leading dictionary of the German language. © Bahlsen GmbH & Co. KG

In 2013 the “golden Leibniz cookie” was stolen from the façade of the headquarters in Hanover. Bahlsen offered a donation of 52,000 butter cookies to 52 charitable institutions. The thief – known as cookie monster to this very day – returned the cookie. © Bahlsen GmbH & Co. KG

Portion sachets: containing mini-format cookies for seniors and singles. © Bahlsen GmbH & Co. KG

On-the-go pack: From cycling tours through to trips to the swimming baths and hiking – the practical packs are extremely handy and fit every bag.

Why do Leibniz cookies have 52 teeth? “Because they would not taste good without them,” says the boss Werner M. Bahlsen.

Only cookies with 52 “healthy” teeth end up in the packaging.

Packaging caught between tradition and modernity

Alongside numerous flavours the various packaging formats have also warranted the company’s success. The corporate brand is staged with an accomplished mix of tradition and modernity thereby appealing to a wide variety of target groups. Butter cookies proved to be innovative from the outset because their packaging was among the first hermetically sealed ones. The then H. Bahlsens Cakes-Fabrik advertised this so-called TET packaging. TET resembles the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for “forever”, “eternally” or “permanent”.

Further information

28.09.2015

Special Edition Packaging Launched to Mark Salt Stick Anniversary

Salt sticks are turning 80! Reason enough for the Saltletts manufacturer to offer this snack in a celebratory pack. Efficient production is ensured by special machinery.