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Holl's Chocolates is a family-owned, small business that produces a specialized product to very exacting standards. And we plan to stay that way. While other companies choose to grow bigger, we choose to get better. In part our decision to stay small comes from our commitment to staying authentic. And our authenticity comes from our history... The history of Holl's begins founder Fritz Holl's training as a candy maker in Switzerland in 1938. As a young man, Fritz was sent to Zurich to be an apprentice in his uncle's conditorie. (A conditorei is a combination pastry shop, chocolate shop and cafe.) Cheap labor meant little incentive to automate production, so nearly everything was done by hand. By the time he finished his training, Fritz could make almost all the sweet delights found in a Swiss conditorei, from chocolates to pastries to cakes. In 1958, Fritz immigrated to the United States in response to an ad for a Swiss-trained chocolate maker placed by Ohio dairy company Broughton's. The dairy's owner, Carl Broughton, wanted to introduce Americans to fine European chocolates, but his plan failed. Either weren't used to the intense flavor of European chocolates, or they didn't couldn't afford the indulgence. Fritz switched to working for Broughton's in other ways, but he continued to make chocolates for his friends. In 1986, Fritz retired from Broughton's but he wasn't ready to slow down...