Interesting facts about Milka

Milka is a brand of chocolate confection.

The brand’s symbol is a purple cow with a bell around her neck, usually in an Alpine meadow.

Milka has been the first company to produce and sell not only milk chocolate but also chocolate bars.

On November 17, 1825, Swiss chocolatier Philippe Suchard established a pâtisserie in Neuchâtel where he sold a hand-made dessert, chocolat fin de sa fabrique. The following year, Suchard expanded his company and moved production to nearby Serrières, where he produced 25–30 kg of chocolate daily in a rented former water mill.

During the 1890s, milk was added to Suchard’s chocolate.

Suchard’s Milka was brought to life in 1901. The new confectionery was given a name which combined two of its key ingredients: Milch (milk) and Kakao (cocoa). The first bar of Milka chocolate was wrapped in the famous lilac paper and decorated with a cow and the Alpine panorama. With its tender taste and distinctive look, Milka became an instant favourite.

Milka chocolates were introduced in Austria in the 1910s in order to spread popularity, and by 1913 the company was producing 18 times more chocolate than they did when at the original plant in 1880.

By the 1920s Milka had introduced limited edition themed chocolates. Themes were related around holidays such as Christmas and Easter and had chocolate cast into the shape of Santa Claus, Christmas ornaments, Easter bunnies and various sizes of Easter eggs.

By the 1960s the Milka script logo and its lilac packaging was trademarked, quickly becoming Germany’s number one chocolate.

Milka has put focus on “tenderness” being their main advertising theme since the 1960s.

In 1972, the Milka cow named Lila became the face of their advertising campaigns and has remained so to the current day.

Lila as a real cow ‘painted’ lilac – was created in 1973 by Peter Schmidt, a designer at the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. The Milka cow became a star of TV and films, and to date has been one of the advertising world’s most successful characters. The impact of the Milka cow advertising campaign was strongly revealed a few years ago in an art competition in Southern Germany, when 40,000 children were asked to draw a picture of a cow and almost one-third of them painted it lilac!

Throughout the years, many people have wondered, why a cow was chosen as a symbol for Milka. The answer is simple. The Milka cow embodies the home of the brand and its characteristics perfectly: the Alpine world and Alpine milk.

In 1970, Suchard merged with Tobler to become Interfood.

Interfood merged with the Jacobs coffee company in 1982, becoming Jacobs Suchard.

Kraft Foods acquired Jacobs Suchard, including Milka, in 1990.

Since 1990, the products have been produced internationally by the US confectionery company Mondelēz International.

In 1995 Milka officially became a ski sponsor and would later become one of the most famous sport sponsors after the FIS Alpine Cup that was held in Lienz.

In 2001, Milka established it’s 100th anniversary.

In 2015, Milka used a lilac-colored boat with Lila the mascot on it to tour the rivers of Germany and Austria during the summer. This boat was dubbed the “Muhboot” (pronounced Moo-boat).

In 2016, Milka the first time came to China.

Milka also produces chocolate-covered cookies and biscuits.

About 150,000 amount of Milka products sold around the world each hour.