Godiva Chocolatier is a producer of high quality chocolates and related products. Godiva owns and perform more than 600 retail boutiques and shops in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia and is accessible via more than 10,000 speciality retailers. Additionally chocolates, Godiva also sells truffles, coffee, cocoa, biscuits, dipped fruits and sweets, chocolate liqueur, shakes, wedding and party favors and other items arranged in gift baskets. Godiva also produces seasonal and limited-edition chocolates with very special packaging for every major celebrations. Godiva also has license agreements for the production of ice cream, cheesecake, coffee pods and liqueur that comes in several chocolate-related flavors. Godiva was founded in 1926 in Brussels, Belgium, by Joseph Draps who opened his first boutique in the Grand Place in Brussels under its present name, in respect of the legend of Lady Godiva.
Lady Godiva was an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to a legend dating back approximately to the thirteenth century, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in an effort to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her partner on his tenants. The initial Godiva shop outside Belgium was created in Paris on the in vogue Rue St. Honoré in 1958. In 1966, the company's products reached the usa, where they were sold at luxurious strip malls. The following year, it was purchased by the Campbell Soup Company. In 1972, the first Godiva boutique in North America was opened on New York's Fifth Avenue. By 2007 Godiva had annually sales of approximately $500 million. On December 20, 2007, Campbell announced that it entered into a contract to sell Godiva to Yıldız Holding headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, which is the person who owned Ülker group plus the major consumer goods manufacturer in the Turkish food industry. The acquisition was finished on March 18, 2008, for $850 million.
