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What does Haribo stand for?
Six letters, three words. The name on every bag of Haribo is a clue to the man who started it, and the city where he did it.
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Haribo is not a made up word. It is an abbreviation, formed from the first two letters of three words: the founder's first name, his surname and the city where he started the business.
HAns RIegel BOnn
- HA is for Hans, the founder's first name. His full name was Johannes Riegel, but he was known as Hans.
- RI is for Riegel, his surname.
- BO is for Bonn, the German city where he was born and where he set up the company.
Put together, they make Haribo. This kind of name, built from the first syllables of several words, is called a syllabic abbreviation.
How it started
Hans Riegel worked at a confectionery factory before leaving to start his own sweet company. On 13 December 1920 it was entered in the commercial register in Bonn. According to the company, his starting equipment was a sack of sugar, a copper pot, a marble slab, a stool, a stove and a roller. In 1921 he bought a house in the Kessenich district of Bonn, which became Haribo's first factory, and his wife Gertrud became the company's first employee.
In 1922 he created a fruit gum shaped like a bear, called the Tanzbär, or Dancing Bear. Since 1960 Haribo has called its bears Goldbears. See Hans Riegel and the gummy bear.
Haribo in Britain
Haribo came to Britain in 1972, when it bought Dunhill's, a maker of liquorice Pontefract cakes founded in the 18th century. It has production in Pontefract and at Castleford in Yorkshire: see Pontefract cakes.
Still a family business
After Hans Riegel died in 1945, his sons Hans and Paul ran the company for decades. Ownership is now split between two family holding companies, and in 2018 the headquarters moved from Bonn to Grafschaft in Rhineland Palatinate, though Bonn is still a production site. The name, though, still points back to Bonn, where it all began.
For a common question about Haribo sweets, see is Haribo made from pig?
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
What does Haribo stand for?
HAns RIegel BOnn. The name joins the first two letters of the founder's first name, Hans, his surname, Riegel, and his home city, Bonn.
Who founded Haribo?
Johannes Riegel, known as Hans, a confectioner from Bonn, who registered the company on 13 December 1920. He made his first gummy bears in 1922.
Is Haribo still in Bonn?
The company's headquarters moved from Bonn to Grafschaft in Rhineland Palatinate in 2018, but Bonn is still a production site.
Sources
- Haribo, Wikipedia
- Hans Riegel Sr., Wikipedia
Keep reading
- The people behind the sweetsHans Riegel and the gummy bearHans Riegel of Bonn founded Haribo in 1920 and made his first gummy bears, called Dancing Bears, in 1922. How a sack of sugar and a copper pot became Haribo.
- Questions people askIs Haribo made from pig?Standard Haribo Goldbears are made with pork gelatine, so they are not vegetarian, halal or kosher. Haribo makes halal and kosher versions.
- How it is madeHow are gummy bears made?Gummy bears are a hot mix of sugar, glucose syrup, starch, gelatine and flavours poured into bear shapes stamped in starch and left overnight to set.
- Sweet by sweetGummy bearsGummy bears compared: Haribo Goldbears made with gelatine, halal bears with beef gelatine, and vegan bears set with pectin and starch, wheat included.
- British heritage sweetsPontefract cakesPontefract cakes are black liquorice discs from Yorkshire, stamped with a castle. They began as medicine and sealed Britain's first secret ballot box.
- Questions people askWhy is chewing gum so hard to get off pavements?Gum bonds to pavements and shoe soles because they are made of similar polymers. Removing it needs steam and scrapers, and costs cities a fortune.