The history of the
corporation
“Biscuit-Chocolate”
Grigory Nikolayevich Borman founded a confectionery firm under the name of Georges Borman and became a merchant of guild II.
The firm was awarded the bronze medal for the first time. It allowed Grigory Nikolayevich to obtain a loan for the construction of a new factory building.
George Borman company won the right to put on the production labels coat of arms.
In addition to high prestige, such privilege also ensured a good counterfeit protection.
The matter is that in accordance with the laws of that time the dishonest merchant could be punished for tampering someone else’s products by a penalty, but it was quite real to lose all the funds and rights and be imprisoned at penal servitude for illegal printing of the coat of arms.
Products of the firm won the gold medal at the World Fair in Paris.
The firm was reorganized into Georges Borman Partnership with a fixed capital of 300 thousand rubles. Transition to a new structure, reasonable distribution of shares and availability of additional funds brought the factory to a new level, and the Partnership capital grew up to 1 million rubles. To expand deliveries of products to the south, G. N. Borman took the decision to build a second factory in Kharkiv – a large industrial and trading center, through which several long-distance railways passed. In the same year, Georges Borman Partnership got the permit to build a confectionery factory in Kharkiv at 24 Katsarskaya Street.
The factory of Georges Borman Partnership on the production of sponge-cakes and chocolate, the so-called Chocolate Factory, was open in Kharkiv. A new three-storeyed building of the factory was found.
Products of Georges Borman Partnership were awarded two Grand Prizes at the World Fair in Paris. A manufacturer’s shop for retail trading was open on Nikolayevskaya Square in Kharkiv.
Georges Borman Partnership refused using animal-drawn transport and purchased five Frieze motor vehicles to deliver raw materials and distribute finished products around the city.
The Kharkiv factory employed about 720 people producing nearly 2,800 tons of confectionery products for 2 million rubles a year. Products of Georges Borman Partnership were famous for their quality, excellent taste and variety: cocoa, chocolate, chocolate cakes (Delis), chocolate and fruit candies (more than 200 items), marmalade (fruit jelly), marshmallow, caramel, sugar candies, fruit and berries paste, panned sweets, gingerbreads, cookies, sponge cakes, jams and syrups.
The Kharkiv Biscuit and Chocolate Factory was nationalized and renamed into the First State Confectionery Factory of the Former Georges Borman Partnership.
It was decided to turn the biscuit workshop of the former Georges Borman factory into an independent enterprise. In order to do so, construction of a biscuit factory at 8 Lozovskaya Street began. The factory was put into operation in March 1935. Four lines with coal-fired tunnel-type brick furnaces with manual control were the capital equipment of the factory. The new enterprise provided employment to 1,300 people. The factory was intended to manufacture bakery confectionery products – sponge cakes and cookies – with a capacity of 54 tons per day.
Equipment of Oktyabr Confectionery Factory was evacuated to Almaty, where it was placed in the territory of the liquor enterprise. Equipment of the biscuit factory was taken out to Ufa and placed at the old fruit-and-vegetable processing plant.
Post-war restoration of factories, official putting of enterprises into operation and achievement of planned outputs.
In connection with the discovery of Shebelinsk gas field, it was decided to fully reconstruct the Kharkiv Biscuit Factory. The boiler room, waffle department and two biscuit-making workshops were provided with gas supply. Furnaces were replaced by gas furnaces, and the factory received high-yield continuous dough-mixing machines.
2,168 people worked at the confectionery factory. Five production shops produced 100 tons of sweet products daily. The building of the waffle shop was built at the biscuit factory by “people’s construction” method.
Since that time, an active modernization and re-equipment of production facilities with the installation of automated lines, development of new technologies and recipes for the production of original confectionery products for the first time in Ukraine has been carried out.
Today, the tradition to invest in innovations is the main direction of the strategic planning.
It was decided to produce all products of both enterprises – Kharkiv Biscuit Factory and Kharkovchanka Confectionery Factory – under a common trademark of Biscuit-Chocolate.
Two Kharkiv enterprises – biscuit and confectionery factories – united in a corporation with the same name.
