8) Perfetti van Melle (Italy) $3.28 billion
The next candy maker is Perfetti van Melle from Italy. However, the company’s roots go way back to the Netherlands where in 1841 Izaak van Melle founded a local bakery in Breskens.
In 1900, he modernized and expanded the business and for the next 30 years Izaak’s son Abraham traveled the world sampling candies and experimenting with new products as well as manufacturing techniques for the van Melle company.
Few years later, he introduced the Fruitella and Meton, which remain among the company’s biggest sellers even these days.
This company and the one that produced the first lollipop merged in 2001, becoming the largest confection producer in Europe, with sales of nearly $3.3 billion this year.
