Swedish crackerbread company Wasa has been ordered to re-name one of its most well-known products, Moraknaecke, 27 years after the brand was first launched.
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A Swedish court ordered the name change because Wasa’s round crackers are not produced in the Dalarna region, where the town of Mora is situated, reported BBC News Online.
The court ruled that the name could mislead consumers as regards the product’s origins, a decision backed by a small family-run bakery firm Leksandsbroed, which is based in Dalarna.
Leksandsbroed, with annual sales of SEK120m (US$14.7m), has been protesting against Wasa’s use of the Mora name since the 1970s.
Wasa, which is a subsidiary of Italian bakery group Barilla, argued that Moraknaecke is a well-known brand name, not a reference to the product’s origins.
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By GlobalData“To the Swedish people, Moraknaecke is a powerful symbol of a healthy lifestyle, of Nordic traditions and of historic roots,” K G Rickhamre, a public relations consultant with Coast Communications in Stockholm told BBC News Online.
“The company is now facing a tough and stimulating challenge,” Rickhamre said.
Wasa, which has annual sales of SEK2bn, has been given a year to change the name of its product.
Leksandsbroed says Sweden’s membership of the European Union has helped it win its fight and that the result benefits local producers and consumers.
“I think all Swedish companies feel a certain responsibility when they have their resort or their community’s name included in their company name,” Leksandsbroed chief executive Rune Joon was quoted by the BBC as saying.
“A resort’s good name and reputation belongs to everyone who lives and works there.”
