[3] Throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was one of the big three confectionery manufacturers in the United Kingdom, alongside Cadbury and Fry, both also founded by Quakers.

[10] In 1881, Rowntree introduced Fruit Pastilles, competing against French imports of the time, and the product proved to be a great success, accounting for about 25% of the company's tonnage by 1887.

[13] In the 1890s, Rowntree transformed from a small family business into a large-scale manufacturer, as sales more than quadrupled due to an increased demand among the public for confectionery.

[14] In 1889, Seebohm Rowntree established a small research and testing laboratory for analysing ingredients and rival company products.

[16] The Tanner's Moat site had become too small for Rowntree's needs, and the company had noted the success of Cadbury's purpose-built factory in Bournville.

[17] By 1897, the unlimited partnership needed external funding for its expansion, and became a public limited liability company called Rowntree & Co.[18] Robert Fitzgerald has accused the company of being slow in new product development and marketing compared to its major competitor of the period, Cadbury.

[19] Fitzgerald suggests that Joseph Rowntree imitated the successes of competitors (Cadbury's Cocoa Essence, French fruit pastilles) and that under his leadership, the company did not introduce any innovations of its own.

[21] Rowntree's poor performance in the category became a major problem from 1914 onwards, as British public preference continued to move towards milk chocolate, and away from the more bitter cocoa essence products.

[22] Meanwhile, the Rowntree board was torn as to whether it should become a low-turnover, high-quality product company or a mass producer of cheaper lines.

[26] Rowntree entered the continental Europe market in the 1960s, establishing production facilities in Hamburg, Dijon, Elst, and Noisiel.

[31] In the same year, the board attempted to diversify the business, and made a bid for Bovril, but lost out to James Goldsmith's Cavenham Foods.

[6] Between 1981 and 1987, Rowntree invested nearly £400 million in upgrading its manufacturing facilities and developing high-volume, product-dedicated equipment for several of the company's brands, including Kit Kat, After Eights, and Smarties.

[6] On 13 April 1988, the Swiss confectioner Jacobs Suchard began a dawn raid on Rowntree's shares, which had been under-performing the market, although they were beginning to improve, taking a 14.9% stake in the company by 9:15 am.

[6] As a result, the managing director of Nestlé, Helmut Maucher, contacted Kenneth Dixon, the chairman of Rowntree, offering to act as a white knight.

[6] Rowntree was the fourth-largest chocolate manufacturer in the world, after Mars, Hershey, and Cadbury, with a 7% global market share.

[37] The Nestlé Rowntree factory in Norwich closed in 1994, and Rolo, Yorkie, and Easter-egg production was moved to York.

[38] In September 2006, it was announced that the manufacture of Smarties would be relocated to Hamburg, resulting in 645 job losses at the York factory.

Nestlé has invested more than £200 million in the Rowntree business since 1988, making the York site one of the world's largest confectionery factories.

[41] Nestlé's global research centre for confectionery is also based in York, and doubled in size following a £7 million investment.

[47] The brand has a similar marketplace to that of the Trebor Bassett division of Cadbury's, and competes head-to-head with this company in a number of fruit-gum categories.