In the early 70s former Yugoslavia had state agencies roaming the world, looking for products that could be made in domestic factories, thus helping domestic economy to become competitive. So, that was how the first boxes of Jaffa Cakes, produced since 1927 by McVities factory from Scotland, came to SFRY. After the first surveys a decision was made! A Scottish manufacturer was contacted so that Jaffa Cakes could start being produced in Yugoslavia under the original license.

At the time the license was acquired from McVities, there was already a sweets factory in Takovo running for quite some time, so according to the original plan Jaffa Cakes were supposed to be produced there. Later it turned out that most of the ingredients required for cakes production were delivered to Takovo from Vojvodina, a region in which sugar was produced by industrial and agricultural combine Crvenka. So, a decision was made at the initiative of Vojvodina businessmen to open a new factory in Crvenka and to make Jaffa Cakes – the first sweet to be produced there.

A huge celebration was held to mark the laying of the foundation stone for the new Jaffa factory. One of the many present that day was a 10-year-old Đole who was responsible for carrying the flag of Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. As it happens to be, little Đole is actually Đorđe Šafranj, current Production Planning Manager of the very same factory, which construction he witnessed.

Cake baking machine soon started running and Jaffa Cakes became a hit among customers. We won our first medals on regional fairs, newspapers were writing about Jaffa Cakes.  Production had to be increased! Jaffa Cakes were always made from fresh eggs and even during very early days of production 36 000 fresh eggs a day were required. Eggs were cracked 24 hours a day! There were nine employees responsible for preparing eggs, which means each one of them had to crack 4 000 eggs during a shift. Jaffa still uses fresh eggs, but today they are cracked by machines.

Jaffa Cakes always had 12 cakes in a box.   During the early years of production, employees would take 12 cakes from the production line by hand and prepare them for cellophane wrapping and packing into boxes.   Whenever a new worker joined, he would very quickly learn how to take exactly 12 cakes without looking and prepare them for packaging. Almost no mistakes were made and boxes very rarely had one cake less or more!   Today, Jaffa Cakes are packed by machines.  

In the beginning, Crvenka factory only baked biscuits for Jaffa Cakes, while chocolate and orange jelly were supplied by other factories.   The first chocolate for cake coating was delivered to the Jaffa factory in large cubes produced by a factory in Zvečevo. Large chocolate cubes couldn’t fit the biscuit coating machine.   This was why the factory at the time had to employ a worker responsible for cutting chocolate into smaller pieces by axe.   Since the production continued to grow, we decided to start making our own jelly and chocolate. Complete production of Jaffa Cakes was set up in one location and that was the end of trouble with chocolate!

In the early 1981, six employees from Crvenka went for a visit to the McVitties factory in Glasgow in order to learn how to make Munchmallow.   After a successful trip to Scotland they headed back to Serbia. During the flight they treated themselves with Munchmallow which fellow Scotsman packed them for the road.   On arrival they suddenly realized that they ate the actual Munch samples and that the only thing left was the wrappings of the original biscuit!   Having no more samples, they started recreating Munchmallow by memory to the biscuits they ate on the plane. That’s how our Munchmallow was created – biscuit of unique taste and look!

Our first promotional product First Jaffa promotional articles were two Munchmallow packages, packed together in a specially designed box Sweet Treasure – variation to the popular Battleship game, where balls made of Munch wrapping were used instead of ships.   Winner of each game would win two, and the loser would lose two Munchmallows! The game was a huge hit. That’s how we started with the practice of creating promotional products.

In the early 90s sanctions were imposed against Yugoslavia, so it became very difficult to find all of the ingredients for the production of sweets. An urgent solution was needed to keep the factory going during these rough times. That’s when Jaffa introducted another innovation. Actually, it was just a biscuit!   The product was an unexpected success, so during the 90s the company started producing another biscuit – Extra Biscuit made of wholemeal flour.  

The entire Jaffa plant was modernized in 1995.   Large silos were constructed within factory grounds, making all ingredients for our products, such as flour and sugar, available to production at a push of a button.

As modernization of the factory continued, in 1997 we added a family-size Jaffa Cakes to the list of our products.

Once it was announced that Crown Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević was to visit the Jaffa factory.   The Prince was expected to take a few photos during the visit. However, at the time there wasn’t a single mirror the Prince could use to prep for the pictures!   Since the Prince’s visit was planned for 11 a.m. one employee was sent before dawn to buy a mirror from a local store, as soon as it opened. After buying the mirror, he rushed to the factory where everyone was waiting to put the mirror on the wall before the Prince came.   The mirror was put at the entrance of the production room. It still stands there today and it is known as Prince Aleksandar’s mirror.

We continued introducing innovative products and expanding our portfolio.   We were the first in Serbia to start producing a wholemeal biscuit named O’cake.   Soon after launching O’cake classic biscuit, we released O’cake with chocolate chips.   O’cake product line currently has 8 different flavours.

In mid-2006 we opened a new plant within existing factory grounds with total area of 12,000 m2.   We built a modern production building, as well as a warehouse for raw materials and packaging, finished products warehouse, a laboratory, workshops and office building.   We installed two modern production lines (APV and HAAS) which allowed us to expand our portfolio with new products!

The new plant was up and running and we continued introducing innovations.   We started the production of Tak cracker and the launch was supported by a large campaign under the slogan “Cracker of the crackerism!”.   After the original crackers proved to be a success, we launched Tak Mini and many other flavours.

Our brand Jaffa Cakes has been a proud sponsor of the Olympic Committee of Serbia since 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.   Since then, before each Olympics we release a special limited edition of Olympics-themed Jaffa Cakes boxes.   We already celebrated so many victories together and look forward to future sport successes!

Although Jaffa Napolitanke was launched several years earlier, 2016 was certainly the key year for the brand.   This was the year in which we improved the recipe for Jaffa Napolitanke and it soon became a unique product on domestic market thanks to the lavish 80% filling between crispy wafers.   As such, it soon became a leading product in Serbian market.

We made something soft, something juicy, something wonderful – fine cookies with rich chocolate or orange fill.   When heavenly powers unite for a cake to get wings, Jaffa cakes are brought to life – as soft as silk!