Czarnikow Group Limited are the largest mover of containerized white sugar in the world by volume and have offices across the globe, with the Headquarters in St Pauls in London.
The firm was created by Julius Caesar Czarnikow in 1861 and under his guidance, it was to become a leading international sugar and produce broker.
He developed good connections with the London produce brokers and by 1860 Caesar was ready to open his own firm.
Of more lasting import was the recruitment of two young men in 1875: Charles Laggeman, active in the sugar trade, was also of German parentage and Julius Ganzoni, specializing in coffee, was from Switzerland.
In 1883 a cotton department was added, and in 1888 Czarnikow became a founder member of the London Produce Clearing House.
Commenting on the collapse of one of the merchants that unsuccessfully tried to corner the pepper market, the receiver said “its capital of practically £1,000,000 has 'gone west’”.
Canada saw the opening of a Toronto office in 1948, and in 1954 Czarnikow, in conjunction with the Chivers & Sons jam firm, purchased the latter's Canadian representative, F L Benedict.
An answer to a parliamentary question in June 1973 disclosed that Czarnikow ranked 16th in the country by size of turnover - £605m.
[6] The 2021 annual report describes the main activities of the group as physical trading in sugar (raw and refined), PET, dairy products, ingredients, biomass and “added-value services”; the latter included structured finance, logistics and financial advice.