Nestlé Candy Shop (formerly The Willy Wonka Candy Company) was a brand of confectionery owned and licensed by the Swiss corporation Nestlé. The brand was discontinued in 2018 when the individual brands was sold to Ferrara Candy Company. History Origins The previous Wonka brand's inception comes from materials licensed from the British author Roald Dahl. His classic 1964 children's novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and its film adaptations are the sources of both the packaging and the marketing styles of the Wonka brand. Dahl had licensed the "Wonka" name to film director Mel Stuart. The film's producer David L. Wolper convinced the Quaker Oats Company to advance $3 million to finance the film in exchange for the right to use the Wonka name to sell candy bars. Quaker, who had no previous experience in the film industry, bought the rights to the book and financed the picture to promote their new "Wonka Bar". The title of the film was changed to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory for promotional purposes. The brand was launched on 17 May 1971, one month before the release of the novel's first film adaptation on 30 June 1971. In 1975, Breaker Confections was acquired by Sunmark Corporation of Saint Louis, Missouri. In 1980, the Breaker Confections brand name was changed to Willy Wonka Brands in an attempt to develop the Wonka brand image before it was sold out in 1986 to Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery of the UK, who, then sold it out in 1988 to Swiss company Nestlé, who in 1993 renamed it Willy Wonka Candy Company, and then in 2015 Nestlé Candy Shop. In 1988, the Willy Wonka Candy Company brand, then owned by Sunmark Corporation, was acquired by Nestlé. The original Wonka Bars never saw store shelves due to factory production problems before the film's release; however, subsequent Wonka product releases were highly successful, including the Everlasting Gobstopper in 1976 and Nerds in 1983. From 1988 to 2015, Nestle sold sweets and chocolate under the Willy Wonka brand name in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, and the Middle East. The business was discontinued in 2018, when the individual brands were sold to Ferrara Candy Company. In 2017, the Willy Wonka brand was dropped by Nestlé in favor of special "throwback" packaging before they eventually