[1] The company started as a confectionery business selling various types of candy, including the Droste chocolate pastilles that are still being sold today.

The company had also been winning a significant market share in both the Netherlands and foreign countries, in spite of the competition from larger chocolate manufacturers.

After the turn of the century the company had been exporting its products to Belgium, Germany and France, and in 1905 it entered the American market.

It is believed that this illustration was created by Jan (Johannes) Misset,[3] being inspired by a pastel known as La Belle Chocolatière ("The Pretty Chocolate Girl").

When the war was over, the leadership of Gerardus Johannes Droste junior slowly saw the company's production and turnover improve.

In 1920 the firm was turned into a public limited company called Droste's Cacao- en Chocoladefabrieken N.V. and by the year 1930 more than 800 employees were working in the factory at the Spaarne.

At that time, a group of 25 salesmen was travelling through the Netherlands to promote Droste products to confectionery shops.

The brand name's familiarity did not remain limited to the Netherlands as it became increasingly known abroad, resulting in the establishment of Droste offices all over the world such as in London, Paris, Prague, New York, Chicago and Boston.

It became worse during the Second World War, when Allied aircraft bombardment caused considerable damage to the company's cardboard department.

Under its current name Droste B.V. the company operates as an independent business unit in Vaassen, although it is owned by Hosta.