The exact corporate structure varies by market: Mederer retains Trolli in most international markets, while Ferrara operates the Trolli brand in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.1

Origins: 1948

The story of Trolli begins before the Trolli name itself.

In 1948, German confectioner Willy Mederer established a confectionery business. His products included peppermint fondant, cream hats and cream sticks. His son, Herbert Mederer, joined the family business at the age of 17.1

Herbert eventually became the driving force behind the company’s transformation from a traditional confectionery manufacturer into a producer of unusual, colourful gummy candies.

Birth of Trolli

During the 1970s, Herbert Mederer began developing a new style of gummy candy characterised by bright colours, unusual shapes and playful concepts. The company registered “Trolli der Bär” as a trademark in 1979, marking an important milestone in the development of the brand.2

The name Trolli consequently became associated with a distinctive approach to gummy candy: rather than simply making conventional fruit gums, the company emphasised unusual shapes and playful products.

International expansion

Trolli subsequently expanded outside Germany.

Among its early international developments was the establishment of a production facility in Creston, Iowa, in 1986, supporting the brand’s presence in the United States. The company later established or acquired additional production capacity in Europe and Asia.2

During the 1980s and 1990s, Trolli introduced several products that became characteristic of the brand, including:

• Trolli Wurrlis
• Apple Rings
• Peach Rings
• Trolli Burger
• Sour Glowworms / Sour Worms

The brand’s Sour Glowworms, introduced in 1993, became one of its major international successes. Herbert Mederer subsequently received the Candy Kettle Award in recognition of his creativity and pioneering work in confectionery.1

Formation of Trolli GmbH

In 2012, several previously independent German operating units were consolidated into Trolli GmbH. Production was subsequently concentrated at facilities including those in Hagenow and Neunburg vorm Wald.2

The Mederer Group continued to expand its manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities in Germany, Spain, France, China and the United States. According to the company, its products reach more than 100 countries.2

One of the potentially confusing aspects of Trolli’s corporate history is that Trolli does not have exactly the same ownership structure in every country.

In North America, Trolli became part of the portfolio of Ferrara Candy Company. Ferrara says it acquired Trolli and other brands through its 2012 merger with Farley’s & Sathers Candy Company. Ferrara subsequently became a Ferrero-affiliated company following CTH Invest’s acquisition in 2017.1

Today:

• Mederer Group / Trolli GmbH operates Trolli across most of the world.
• Ferrara operates the Trolli brand in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
• Ferrara itself is part of the wider Ferrero ecosystem.1

This means that seeing Trolli described as either a Mederer brand or a Ferrara/Ferrero brand can both be correct, depending on the market being discussed.

Trolli’s central product category is gummy candy, with a particularly strong emphasis on sour gummies.

The brand’s product philosophy is built around combining:

• sweet and sour flavours
• bright colours
• unusual shapes
• chewy textures
• playful packaging
• novelty concepts

Ferrara currently highlights several Trolli products in North America, including Sour Brite Crawlers, Sour Brite Crawlers Very Berry, Sour Brite Crawlers Fruit Punch, and Sour Electric Crawlers.1

Sour Brite Crawlers

The Sour Brite Crawlers are among Trolli’s most recognisable products in the North American market. They are brightly coloured gummy worms with a sour coating, embodying the brand’s characteristic combination of sweetness, sourness and playful design.

They are particularly important to Trolli’s identity in the United States, where the brand has become strongly associated with sour gummy worms. Ferrara describes Trolli as a leader in the U.S. gummy-candy category.1

Sour Glowworms

The Sour Glowworms are one of Trolli’s classic products. Introduced in 1993, they became an international success and are closely associated with the brand’s early expansion into sour gummy candy.2

Apple and Peach Rings

Apple Rings and Peach Rings represent another important part of Trolli’s product history. The first Trolli Originals, including Apple and Peach Rings, appeared in 1982.1

Trolli Burger

The Trolli Burger is an example of the company’s more eccentric approach to candy design. Instead of simply producing conventional gummy bears or worms, Trolli created a gummy product designed to resemble a miniature hamburger.

This type of product helped establish the brand’s reputation for novelty and unconventional candy shapes.

Trolli’s identity is considerably more playful and unconventional than that of many traditional confectionery brands.

Its philosophy can essentially be summarised as:

Make candy fun, unexpected and a little weird.

The company’s current brand claim is “Let the fun win.”, introduced in 2021. Trolli says the phrase reflects its emphasis on fun, creativity, colour and humour.1

The brand therefore tends to avoid presenting candy merely as a traditional food product. Instead, Trolli treats its products almost as playful objects and experiences.

This is visible in:

• exaggerated product shapes
• vivid colours
• sour flavours
• humorous advertising
• unusual product names
• unconventional packaging
• irreverent marketing

Although Trolli produces many kinds of gummy candy, sourness has become one of its defining characteristics, particularly in North America.

The combination of a soft, chewy gummy centre with an acidic/sour coating gives Trolli products a distinctive sensory contrast:

sweet → sour → sweet

That contrast is particularly prominent in products such as Sour Brite Crawlers and Sour Glowworms.

Ferrara itself describes Trolli’s appeal as “where sour meets sweet in every bite.”1

Trolli has developed a substantial international manufacturing network.

The Mederer Group currently reports operations in:

• Germany
• Spain
• France
• China
• United States

and says its products are distributed to more than 100 countries. The group reports approximately 2,300 employees worldwide.2

This makes Trolli considerably more than a small German candy label: it is an internationally distributed confectionery brand with production and commercial operations spanning multiple continents.

Unlike many major confectionery brands that became subsidiaries of large multinational corporations, Trolli’s international business remains closely associated with the Mederer Group, a family-owned company.

The Mederer Group describes itself as a medium-sized international family business headquartered in Fürth, Bavaria. It operates several confectionery brands, including:

• Trolli
• efrutti
• Herbert’s Best

The company says the Mederer family is now in its third generation and intends to maintain the business as an independent family enterprise.2

Trolli’s marketing strategy is heavily centred around surprise, humour and absurdity.

Rather than positioning gummy candy as sophisticated or traditional, the brand deliberately embraces a somewhat chaotic and playful personality.

In the United States, Ferrara describes “It’s TROLLI” as the brand’s largest advertising campaign, designed to reinforce Trolli’s identity as an unexpected and sour candy brand.1

This strategy is particularly effective for a younger audience because Trolli products are visually distinctive and lend themselves naturally to social-media-friendly advertising.

Trolli’s visual identity traditionally emphasises:

• strong colours
• rounded typography
• cartoon-like imagery
• exaggerated gummy shapes
• playful characters
• high-contrast packaging

The brand’s visual presentation is designed to communicate energy and fun rather than premium luxury.

This is an important distinction from brands such as Lindt or Ferrero Rocher, whose visual language emphasises refinement and indulgence. Trolli instead makes playfulness itself part of the product.

Trolli competes primarily in the gummy and sugar-confectionery market.

Major competitors and adjacent brands include:

• Haribo
• Sour Patch Kids
• Black Forest
• Jelly Belly
• Welch’s Fruit Snacks
• various regional gummy and sour-candy brands

Trolli’s principal point of differentiation is its combination of novelty shapes + sour flavours + deliberately irreverent branding.

Its strongest conceptual competitor is arguably Haribo, particularly in gummy worms, bears and other fruit-gum products. However, the two brands have somewhat different personalities: Haribo tends to emphasise its long-established confectionery heritage, while Trolli has built much of its identity around unexpected and unconventional candy experiences.

Mederer family
↓
Mederer Group
↓
Trolli GmbH
↓
Trolli brand — most international markets

Meanwhile:

Ferrara
↓
Ferrero-affiliated company
↓
Trolli — U.S., Canada & Mexico

This market-specific structure is one of the most unusual aspects of Trolli’s corporate history.1

The timeline combines information from Trolli/Mederer and Ferrara’s corporate histories.1

Trolli’s importance in the confectionery industry comes less from inventing gummy candy itself and more from pushing the category toward novelty and playful experimentation.

The brand helped demonstrate that gummy candy could be marketed as more than conventional fruit-shaped sweets. A gummy could be:

• a worm
• a burger
• a ring
• an exaggerated monster-like creature
• an intensely sour candy
• a visually bizarre novelty

That philosophy became a major part of Trolli’s identity.

In this sense, Trolli occupies an interesting position in modern candy culture: it sells conventional sugar confectionery using unconventional ideas.

If you had to summarise Trolli’s personality in a few words, it would be:

Colourful. Sour. Weird. Playful. Chewy. Unpredictable.

The brand’s central proposition isn’t simply “this candy tastes good.” It is closer to:

Candy should be fun enough to make you smile before you even eat it.

That philosophy explains why products such as gummy worms, burgers and brightly coloured sour candies have become so strongly associated with the Trolli name.

• Mederer Group — the German family-owned confectionery group behind Trolli internationally.
• Ferrara — the Ferrero-affiliated confectionery company responsible for Trolli in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
• Gummy candy — the broader confectionery category in which Trolli specialises.
• Haribo — another major German-origin gummy-candy company.
• Sour candy — a major category in which Trolli has built a particularly strong identity.

1. About Trolli: delighting the world with gummies since 1975
2. About Trolli – ultimate gummy candy fun