Leaf International BV was a confectionery company founded in the 1940s. Leaf had sales of approximately €527m (2010) and 2,400 employees. It had 11 factories in seven countries. Leaf was owned by CVC Capital Partners, Nordic Capital, and management. Bengt Baron was the CEO of Leaf. After several mergers and acquisitions Leaf merged with the Swedish confectionery company Cloetta, and dropped the Leaf name. Leaf was also notable for its trading cards, more specifically the baseball cards sets, with the first of them released in 1948. History The company was founded by Sol S. Leaf in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1940s. Its history includes a number of mergers, acquisitions, and divisions, as well as several name changes. In 1940, the Leaf Confectionery Company introduced Rain-Blo Bubble Gum. In 1947, the Overland Candy Company (makers of Whoppers brand malted milk candy) merged with the Chicago Biscuit Company, Leaf Confectionary Company, and Leaf Machinery to form Leaf Brands. In 1948, Leaf issued its first set of baseball cards, the first post-World War II color set. In 1949, Leaf Brands reintroduced Whoppers' Malted Milk Balls. In the 1960s, Whoppers Malted Milk Balls brand and other products manufactured by Leaf Brands were purchased by W. R. Grace and Company, which sold them back in 1976. In 1983, Leaf acquired Jolly Rancher. Also in 1983, the Leaf Candy Company in Illinois was purchased by Huhtamäki Oyj of Helsinki, Finland, who merged it with Phoenix Candy (the maker of Now and Later) and another candy company it had acquired, all under the Leaf name. Huhtamäki Oyj acquired the Donruss trading card division of General Mills at about the same time and merged it into Leaf. In 1986, Leaf purchased some confectionery brands from Beatrice Foods, maker of Milk Duds. Also in 1986, Leaf, Inc. sold Phoenix Candy to Kouri Capital, a Finnish investment firm, changing its name to Phoenix Confections. In 1988, Hollywood Brands, maker of Payday and Zero, was purchased from Sara Lee by Huhtamäki Oyj and became part of Leaf, Inc. In 1989, the Heath bar was purchased by Leaf. In the 1990s, Leaf became one of the world's top-ten confectionery companies; it was especially strong in non-chocolate products such as pastilles and chewing gum. By 1993 Leaf was the fourth largest candy producer in North America. In 1996, the Hershey Foods Corporation acquired the Leaf North American confectionery operations from Huhtamäki Oyj. Over