Fazer (, ) is one of the largest corporations in the Finnish food industry. The company was founded by Karl Fazer in 1891, as a "French-Russian café" in central Helsinki. Today, it employs over 6,000 people across Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Norway and Poland. Its products are exported to more than 40 countries. Later, Fazer Keksit was sold to Danone. It was renamed to LU Suomi, the entirety of which was bought back by Fazer in 2012 from Kraft Foods Inc. (now Mondelez International) and now operates under Fazer Confectionery.
thumb|right|250px|Fazer Visitor Centre, [[Vantaa, soon after opening in November 2016]]
November 2016 saw the opening of a Visitor Centre at their confectionery factory at Fazerintie in Vantaa. The avant-gardist building, in the shape of two circles with a botanical garden at the centre of one of them, was designed by K2S Architects. The Visitor Centre also includes a café, congress wing and shop.
In the summer of 2019, Fazer bought the Finnish company Kaslink Foods, which specializes in plant-based foods. According to Fazer, it sought a stronger focus on consumer products through the acquisition and saw growth opportunities, especially in the oat-based products that Kaslink manufactures. Just a few days earlier, Fazer had announced that it would sell its Fazer Food Services restaurant operations to the British Compass Group as part of the company's strategy focused on consumer products.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fazer sold its Russian business to bakery firm Kolomenskij.
Corporate affairs
Business areas and management
thumb|Karl Fazer Café in Finland
Fazer Group includes communications, legal, HR, finance and treasury, risk management, security, investment management, corporate planning, property management and internal audit. Shared services include IT, accounting and human resources.
Fazer operates through three Business Areas. The business areas are Fazer Bakeries, Fazer Confectionery and Fazer Lifestyle Foods.
Products and services
thumb|Fazer chocolate products
Products
Fazer's most notable products include its classic Fazer Blue () milk chocolate, widely regarded as one of Finland's most respected brands and a part of Finnish cultural heritage and cuisine. Other well-known Fazer products include their salmiakki (salty licorice) products, such as Fazer salmiakki, Tyrkisk Peber and salmiakki-flavoured Fazer Blue.
Fazer Bakery
thumb|Fazer Puikula [[Ruisleipä (rye bread)]]
Fazer operates 9 large-scale bakeries across Finland, Sweden and the Baltics and exports its bakery products to 21 countries. In addition to these, Fazer operates 136 small-scale in-store bakeries in large Finnish supermarkets. In 2018, Fazer's cricket bread won the Bronze Lion in the Sustainable Development Goals section of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.