Loacker: Difference between revisions

[[File:Loacker Quadratini, napolitaner.jpg|thumb|Loacker's [[Quadratini]] wafer biscuits]]The company was founded in 1925 in the historic city center of [[Bolzano]] by the confectioner Alfons Loacker.<ref name="origins">{{cite web |title=Le nostre origini - radici regionali, presenza mondiale |url=http://www.loacker.it/it/che-bonta/le-nostre-origini/ |publisher=Loacker |language=Italian |accessdate=10 July 2017}}</ref><ref name="sky">{{Cite web |date=21 January 2019 |title=Storia della Loacker di Bolzano, dai wafer alle praline di cioccolato |url=https://tg24.sky.it/cronaca/2019/01/21/wafer-loacker-bolzano-storia.html |access-date=22 January 2019 }}</ref> Back then, he opened a small store with two assistants in the capital of South Tyrol, at Piazza Domenicani to be precise.<ref name="sky2">{{cite web |url=https://tg24.sky.it/cronaca/2019/01/21/wafer-loacker-bolzano-storia.html |title=Storia della Loacker di Bolzano, dai wafer alle praline di cioccolato |date=21 January 2019 |access-date=22 January 2019}}</ref> Over the years, the confectionery store became too small until 1974 marked the transition from a small regional [[bakery]] to an industrial reality, by moving away from the city. Armin Loacker, Alfon's son, chose the [[Ritten|Renon]] plateau in the heart of the [[Dolomites]] (a [[World Heritage Site|UNESCO Natural World Heritage]] site) to produce his own wafers, thereby abiding by his motto: "a natural product is manufactured in a natural environment."

 

Loacker nowadays has two plants, one in Auna di Sotto on the Renon and a second one in Heinfels in East Tyrol (Austria). At both production sites wafers and chocolate specialties are produced at more than 1,000 meters above sea level. Today, the third generation leads the company: Armin's sons Andreas and Martin Loacker together with his nephew Ulrich Zuenelli who works as executive chairman.

 

In 2022 Loacker announced the initiation of a multi-year partnership with [[Sammontana]] for the production of a new range of Loacker-branded ice creams.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sammontana e Loacker, una partnership di bontà |url=https://www.mark-up.it/sammontana-e-loacker-una-partnership-di-bonta/}}</ref>

 

The Napolitaner (Hazelnut) flavored ranges are amongst Loacker's best-known products. The name "Napolitaner" derives from the hazelnuts which represent the main ingredient of the cream in the wafers and used to be sourced from plantations near [[Naples]].