 The company traces its origins from two factories from the early 20th century - "Union", founded in 1911, the oldest surviving chocolate manufacturer in southeastern Europe - and "Bizjak", founded in 1923, which manufactured toast, cookies and wafers.These two companies, as well as a number of smaller confectionery manufacturers from Zagreb, merged in 1950 and took the name Kraš, in honor of Josip Kraš, a union leader and prominent Croatian communist who was killed in World War II.The company was in social ownership during SFR Yugoslavia, and privatized in 1992 into a private shareholding company with capital estimated at 135,769,000 DM.