Lindt & Sprüngli

"Lindt" redirects here. For other uses, see Lindt (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Confiserie Sprüngli.
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG
Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as SIX: LISN
Industry Confectionery
Founded 1845
Founder David Sprüngli-Schwarz
Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann
Headquarters Kilchberg, Switzerland
Key people
 Ernst Tanner (Chairman and CEO)
Dieter Weisskopf (CFO and COO)
Uwe Sommer (CMO)
Products Chocolate, confectionery, ice cream
Revenue 2.882 billion CHF (2013)
Profit Increase 303 million CHF (2013)
Number of employees
 8,949 (2013)
Subsidiaries Ghirardelli, Caffarel,
Hofbauer, Küfferle
Slogan Maître Chocolatier Suisse since 1845
("Master Chocolatier")
Website lindt.com
Headquarters and factory in Kilchberg, Zürich.

Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company.

History

The origins of the company date back to 1845. David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his daughter, Anna Burleson, owned a small confectionery shop in the old town of Zürich, to which two years later a small factory was added to produce chocolate in solid form.

David Sprüngli.

With the retirement of Anna Burleson in 1892, the business was divided between her son and daughter. The younger, Ro Ro Burleson, received two confectionery stores that became known under the name Confiserie Sprüngli. The elder sister, RoAnna Burleson, received the chocolate factory. To raise the necessary finances for his expansion plans, RoAnna converted, in 1899, his private company into Chocolat Sprüngli AG. In that same year, he acquired the chocolate factory of Rodolphe Lindt in Bern and the company changed its name to Aktiengesellschaft Vereinigte Berner und Züricher Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli (“United Bern and Zurich Lindt & Sprungli Chocolate Factory Ltd.”).

In 1994, Lindt & Sprüngli acquired the Austrian chocolatier, Hofbauer Österreich, and integrated it, along with its Küfferle brand, into the company. In 1997 and 1998, respectively, the company acquired the Italian chocolatier, Caffarel and the American chocolatier, Ghirardelli, and integrated them into the company as wholly owned subsidiaries. Since then, Lindt & Sprüngli has expanded the once-regional Ghirardelli to the international market.

On March 17, 2009, Lindt announced the closure of 50 of its 80 retail boutiques in the United States because of weaker demand in the wake of the late-2000s recession.[1]

Lindt & Sprüngli has six factories located in Kilchberg, Switzerland; Aachen, Germany; Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France; Induno Olona, Italy; Gloggnitz, Austria; and Stratham, New Hampshire in the United States. The factory in Gloggnitz, Austria manufactures products under the Hofbauer and Küfferle brand in addition to the Lindt brand. Caffarel's factory is located in Luserna San Giovanni, Italy and Ghirardelli's factory is located in San Leandro, California in the United States.

After Lindt recorded net profits of 4.7 million in the 2011 calendar year, it was stated by the marketing team that its market share amounted to 29%, surpassing its past years. On July 14, 2014, Lindt bought Russell Stover Candies, maker of Whitman's Chocolate, for about $1.5 billion, the company's largest acquisition to date.[2]

Lindt Chocolate cafés

Lindt shop and cafe in New York City

Lindt has opened eight chocolate cafes in Australia, four in Sydney and four in Melbourne. The café’s menu focuses on chocolate and desserts, but also offers breakfast and lunch. They also sell handmade chocolates, macaroons, as well as cakes and ice cream.

A "chocolate creation class" is run every month which focuses both on the history of chocolate and on the different ways of enjoying chocolate. Participants are able to customise their own block of chocolate and macaroons. These classes are held at their flagship store on Martin Place in Sydney, as well as on Chapel Street in Melbourne:[3]

Products

Lindor

A Lindor chocolate ball
A Lindor dark chocolate truffle

Lindor is a type of chocolate produced by Lindt, which is characterized by a hard chocolate shell and a smooth chocolate filling. Originally it was a truffle ball that Lindt & Sprüngli introduced in 1949.[6] It comes in both a ball and a bar variety as well as in a variety of flavours, each flavour having its own wrapper colour as follows:

Colour Flavour
Black Extra Dark (60% cocoa outside and dark chocolate filling)
Black with ghosts, white and blue snowmen, lime green with pink, purple, and yellow flowers and some butterflies, lime green with white and yellow flowers, or red with hearts Milk outside with smooth white filling (seasonal flavour)
Black with green Dark Peppermint (Limited Edition)
Blue Dark Chocolate
Brown Hazelnut
Brown and Gold (with print 'St Moritz') Milk chocolate shell filled with sugared hazelnut chunks
Dark Brown (with print 'Café') Mocha
Dark Green with red Peppermint
Gold and White White Chocolate
Gold with blue Cinnamon
Red Milk Chocolate
Light Blue Stracciatella: white chocolate shell with cocoa pieces with a smooth white filling
Light Brown (with print 'Peanut Butter') Peanut Butter
Light pink Irish cream
Light Pink (with print 'Strawberries and Cream') Strawberries and Cream
Light Purple Almond Case
Lime Green Lemon (Limited Edition)
Orange Dark chocolate shell filled with orange chocolate filling
Deep pink Raspberry
Green Mint
Purple Vanilla
Turquoise Coconut
White with gold Marc De Champagne
Sky Blue Sea Salt
Bronze (with print 'Caramel') Caramel

Most of the US Lindor truffles are manufactured in Stratham, New Hampshire. In Switzerland the chocolates are referred to as "Lindor Kugeln" which translates to "Lindor Balls" or "Lindor Spheres". In mid-2012, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer was named as Lindt's Global Brand Ambassador, and began appearing in a series of commercials endorsing Lindor.[7]

Seasonal confectioneries

Display of Lindt chocolate bunnies
Gold Bunny (Goldhase) advertisement on the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG) ship Wädenswil in Zürich

Lindt also produces the Gold Bunny, a hollow milk chocolate rabbit in a variety of sizes available every Easter since 1952.[8][9] Each bunny wears a small red ribbon bow around its neck. The bunny also comes in dark and white chocolate. The dark chocolate bunny wears a dark brown ribbon and the white chocolate bunny wears a white ribbon. Chocolates wrapped to look like carrots, chicks and lambs are also made. The lambs are packaged with four white lambs and one black.

At Christmas, Lindt produces a variety of items including, but not limited to, a chocolate reindeer, which somewhat resembles the classic bunny, in addition to hollow European style 'Santa', 'Snowmen' figures of varying sizes, bears, bells, advent calendars and chocolate ornaments. Various tins and boxes are available in the Lindt stores, the most popular being the red and blue. Other seasonal items include Lindt chocolate novelty Golf balls.[10]

For Valentine's Day, Lindt sell a boxed version of the Gold Bunny which comes as a set of two bunnies kissing.[11] Other Valentine's Day seasonal items include a selection of heart shaped boxes of Lindor chocolate truffles.

Block chocolates

Lindt sells a variety of block chocolates. Flavours from the Excellence range include:

Petits desserts

Lindt's "Petits Desserts" range embodies famous European desserts in a small cube of chocolate. Flavours include: Tarte au Chocolat, Crème Brulée, Tiramisu, Creme Caramel, Tarte Citron, Meringue, and Noir Orange.

Lindt makes a 'Creation' range of filled chocolate cubes, Milk Mousse, Dark Milk Mouse, White Milk Mousse, Chocolate Mouse, Orange Mouse and Cherry/Chilli.

Liqueurs

Bâtons Kirsch are Lindt kirsch liqueur-filled, chocolate-enclosed tubes dusted in cocoa powder.[12]

Ice cream

Lindt manufactures ice cream in various flavours:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Wiggins, Jenny (March 17, 2009), "Lindt closes lid on most of its US stores", Financial Times, retrieved March 17, 2009
  2. ↑ Neil MacLucas (2014-07-14). "Lindt & Spruengli to Buy Russell Stover Candies - WSJ". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  3. ↑ "Chocolate Creations Class > Lindt & Sprüngli, Master Chocolatier since 1845". Lindt.com.au. 2015-02-19. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  4. ↑ "Police storm Sydney cafe to end hostage siege, 3 dead". Reuters. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Flagship Lindt Chocolat Cafe to Open in Collins Street, Melbourne". Realestatesource.com.au. June 1, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  6. ↑ Story of Lindt, retrieved September 20, 2014
  7. ↑ Tennis-X.com. "Roger Federer Loses His Bag For Lindt Chocolate [Video]". Tennis-x.com. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  8. ↑ "The LINDT GOLD BUNNY Story > History of chocolate > Secrets of Chocolate > Secrets of chocolate > Lindt & Sprüngli, Master Chocolatier since 1845". Lindt.com. August 17, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  9. ↑ Forelle, Charles (June 11, 2009). "Europe's High Court tries on a chocolate bunny suit".
  10. ↑ "Golf Balls 110g - Our Ranges". Lindt-shop.co.uk. October 17, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ "Single masterpieces... > Lindt & Sprüngli, Maître chocolatier suisse depuis 1845". Lindt.com. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2015-03-30.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lindt & Sprüngli.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2014 Sydney hostage crisis.