Royal Dansk

Royal Dansk (meaning "Royal Danish") is a Danish brand of butter cookies, manufactured by Kelsen Group A/S.^[1] It is known for its distinctive royal blue round tin container.^[2] Since 2019, the brand is owned by Italian conglomerate Ferrero SpA, after it acquired the Kelsen Company for $300 million.^[1]

Royal Dansk

The Hjemstavnsgaard farmhouse on the island of Funen, pictured in 2006
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Food
Founded	1966; 59 years ago (1966)
Fate	Merged with Kjeldsen to form Kelsen; Royal Dansk became a brand
Headquarters	Helsingør , Denmark
Products	Butter cookies
Owner	Ferrero (2019–pres.) Campbell's (2013–19)
Parent	Kelsen Group A/S
Website	royal-dansk.com

Overview

The "Royal Dansk Company" was started in 1966 in Helsingør, Denmark.^[2] In 1990 it merged with another biscuit company, Kjeldsen, whose butter cookies are particularly well known in Hong Kong and China.^[2] The merger formed the company Kelsen.^[2] Kelsen was acquired by Campbell in 2013,^[3] and then sold to Italian manufacturer Ferrero in 2019 for $300 million.^[4][5]

The blue tin box features an image of the Hjemstavnsgaard farmhouse on the island of Funen in Denmark.^[2] These cookies are popular around the holidays and are regularly given as Christmas gifts in the United States; because of this the container has become a part of popular culture, with many people having kept the tin box and used it for storing other items (most commonly recipes and sewing supplies) and thus disappointing curious children hoping for a cookie treat.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]}