La Pie qui Chante
La Pie qui Chante (English: The Singing Magpie), is a French brand of confectionery, since 2017 owned by Eurazeo. History In 1860, Emile Cornillot started creating handmade confectionery from premises on rue Colbert, Lille, specializing in bonbons. The quality of the sweets meant that in 1885, he moved to larger premises on rue de l'Hôpital militaire. After the signing of the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1893, his son Louis starts marketing the sweets in Russia under the FRANCORUSSE brand. A second factory and a second store opened in Paris in 1901. On the death of his father Louis, his 19-year-old son George took over from his father. Wishing to diversify, in 1925 the company acquired the Marseille company La Pie qui Chante, which produced caramels. In 1927, in light of growing fear of the Bolsheviks, George changed the name of the company to La Pie qui Chante. Following construction of the Hotel de Lille on the site of their factory, the company left Paris in 1933 for a new factory base in Wattignies. Once the move was complete, the Marseille factory was also closed. This allowed an expansion in production, and the release of its most famous sweet, Mi-cho-ko, produced from