LicoRico Licorice Soft Candy

Manufacturer• Turkey• Member since 1965

Global Gida is a Turkish joint-stock company based in Pınar, Esenyurt, Istanbul, that makes confectionery and toy candies for children. The company states that its roots go back to a shop opened in Siirt in 1965, followed by a second shop in Van in 1977; it moved to Istanbul in 1987, set up wholesale outlets in Rami, Tahtakale and Mahmutbey, and turned to manufacturing in 1996. It has been registered with the Istanbul Trade Registry since 1 April 2005. The company says it built its first production facility in Esenyurt in 2002, starting with sugared and sugar-free chewing gum, then added marshmallow, kokolin (cocoa) eggs, licorice and soft candy; in 2012 it acquired Aras Gıda, a firm active in the toy-candy market, and it set up the Altınyaldız plant in Beylikdüzü, which makes injection-moulded plastic toys such as surprise-egg capsules, and in 2021 it took over Micromax Toys. It states that it operates a 44,000 m² production facility with close to 1,000 employees, checks raw materials in its laboratories, re-established licorice lines in 2021 and added popping-candy lines in 2022 and sugared-gum lines in 2023. According to its site it holds BRC, Halal, ISO 22000, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certificates. According to the company, the Esenyurt plant produces pressed candy, kokolin eggs, kokolin dragées, hazelnut-cream products, licorice, sugared chewing gum and popping candy, as well as play dough under the Toy Joy Dough brand. Its site lists licorice soft candy, dragée and pressed candy, popping candy, chewing gum, the toy group, stand (display) products and summer products. Its brands include Toy Joy, Eggo Toys, Magicbon, LicoRico, Bombeo, Cece, Cecebon, Dino Big, Dino Mino, Lucky Ball, Loop Candies, YumurToy and Big Wheels!, and its catalogue shows kokolin surprise eggs, HipHop pressed candy and toy candies shaped as vehicles and dolls. The company states that its products reach more than 60 countries and that it set a target of 100 countries. In Turkey it works with about 250 distributors across 81 provinces, its products are sold at about 20,000 points of sale, and it aims to become Turkey's largest soft-candy producer.