Dutch chocolate maker Droste is on the verge of going out of business thanks to the impact of coronavirus on airport sales, high cocoa prices, and rising energy costs.

A takeover by Belgian company Pauwels Engineering, which also owns chocolate bar brand Koetjesreep, was mooted this summer but has fallen through for reasons that have not been disclosed.

All 27 staff at the factory in Vaassen are facing redundancy, FNV union official Eric Brouwer confirmed earlier this week. “As far as I know the factory will close down,” he told the AD.

Droste has been making chocolate since 1863. Last summer, commercial director Bernard Brummelaar said he wanted to do his utmost to safeguard jobs at the factory. “One in three workers is older than 60 and has worked an average of 34 years at the factory. Their life is Droste,” he said at the time.

Droste is best known for its small round chocolates and a tin designed in 1904. It shows a nurse holding a tray with the same tin, creating what has become known as the “Droste effect” of an endless series of pictures within pictures.

The company has not yet been declared bankrupt, but, according to broadcaster NOS, no-one at the factory is answering the phone.

Last month a campaign was launched to keep another traditional Dutch sweet alive.

Haagsche Hopjes, an iconic Dutch coffee-flavoured sweet, which can trace its history back to the early 19th century, is being taken out of production by its Italian owners because of falling demand.

Fans of the distinctive coffee taste will still be able to buy a different version of the sweet, the Holland Hopje, which is oval rather than square and comes in a bag or tin.