Bergene

[1] When it opened on Rodeløkka in 1906, Bergene had 40 employees, but chocolate production was a problem due to steam engines and other equipment often breaking down and needing repairs.

The company used the slogan: "Altid no' godt fra Bergene" for many years, and at its peak produced more than 500 different products.

In 1919, Anders Bergene handed over the company to his son Alf, who replaced horses and carts with electric vans.

On a group trip to Germany in 1925, Alf Bergene bought the recipe for the caramel Smørbukk and brought it into production in 1935.

Bergene employed farmers in Vestfold to grow sugar beet, which was used for "emergency confectionery", and the dessert jelly Aroma was made from alginate, and had to be eaten soon after production, or it would melt into a puddle.

This collided with Oslo Municipality's building regulations, which since the 1920s had planned a green corridor from Grefsenåsen down through Torshovdalen, Sofienbergparken and Københavngata to Akerselva.

The new building would be in the middle of this corridor, but the brothers gave the municipality an ultimatum: Allow the highrise, or production would be moved to Trondheim.