History

The beginning

It was confectioner Joris Van den Driessche, the great-grandfather of the current 4th generation, who set this amazing adventure in motion back in the 1920s and 30s, almost 100 years ago. In the 1930s, his son Jan Van den Driessche joined the business: he made everything himself in his small kitchen and was able to produce 50 kg of sweets per day! In 1938, the company was named Joris.

Back then, all the sweets were made by hand: the pralines, the hard sweets, the soft caramels, the dragées, the nougat and the gums.

 1938

1938

The War

When WWII broke out, production was disrupted as the only ingredients that could be found were sugar and gelatine. Joris therefore focused on producing gums, a product that, at that point, only constituted a small proportion of its assortment. It was a wise choice, because Joris is currently the Belgian market leader in quality gums.

 1940

1940

New generation

In the 1970s, it was time for the third generation to join the business. Hans, the son of Jan and grandson of Joris, began working for the family business, continuing on the tradition.

In late 2012, and late 2017, it was the turn of Joris’ great-grandsons. Diederik and Wouter, sons of Hans, obtained higher educations and work experience outside of the family business and are now confectioners responsible for maintaining the principles behind the well-preserved recipes.

 1965

1965