Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG,
doing business as
A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...
Lindt, is a Swiss
chocolatier
A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients.
Education and training
Traditionally, chocolatiers, ...
and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its
chocolate truffle
A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache centre coated in chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped and toasted nuts (typically hazelnuts or almonds), usually in a spherical, coni ...
s and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in
Kilchberg, where its main factory and museum are located.
History
Founding and early years
![Lindt & Sprüngli 1930 - Kopie](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Lindt_%26_Spr%C3%BCngli_1930_-_Kopie.jpg)
The origins of the company date back to 1836, when
David Sprüngli-Schwarz (1776–1862) and his son Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann (1816–1897) bought a small confectionery shop in the old town of
Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich ...
, producing chocolates under the name David Sprüngli & Son. Before they moved to
Paradeplatz in 1845, they established a small factory where they produced their chocolate in solidified form in 1838.
When Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann retired in 1892, he gave two equal parts of the business to his sons. The younger brother David Robert received two confectionery stores that became known under the name
Confiserie Sprüngli
The Confiserie Sprüngli is a Swiss luxury confectionery manufacturer founded in 1836 and internationally known for its signature macarons called "Luxemburgerli".
History
The company was founded in 1836 when David Sprüngli bought the con ...
. The elder brother Johann Rudolf received the chocolate factory. To raise the necessary finances for his expansion plans, Johann Rudolf then converted his private company into "Chocolat Sprüngli AG" in 1899. In that same year, he acquired the chocolate factory of
Rodolphe Lindt
Rudolf Lindt (16 July 1855 – 20 February 1909), often known by his francized name Rodolphe Lindt, was a Swiss chocolate maker, chocolatier and inventor. He founded the Lindt brand of Swiss chocolate and invented the conching machine and other p ...
(1855–1909) in
Bern, and the company changed its name to "Aktiengesellschaft Vereinigte Berner und Zürcher Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli" (United Bern and Zurich Lindt and Sprungli Chocolate Factory Ltd.).
In 1934, Lindt started to produce milk chocolate. Until then, it only produced dark chocolate.
Expansion
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 Caffarel is a chocolate-manufacturing company based in Luserna San Giovanni, Italy, which is a subsidiary of Lindt & Sprüngli
Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company fo ...
and the American chocolatier
Ghirardelli, and integrated both of them into the company as wholly-owned subsidiaries. Since then, Lindt & Sprüngli has expanded the once-regional Ghirardelli to the international market.
On 17 March 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.
Recent developments
On 14 July 2014, Lindt bought
Russell Stover Candies, maker of Whitman's Chocolate, for about $1 billion, the company's largest acquisition to date.
In November 2018, Lindt opened its first American
travel retail store in
JFK Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...
's Terminal 1 and its flagship Canadian shop in
Yorkdale Shopping Centre
Yorkdale Shopping Centre, or simply Yorkdale, is a major retail shopping centre in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located at the intersection of Highway 401 and Allen Road, it opened in 1964 as the largest enclosed shop ...
, Toronto.
In response to
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Lindt announced that it would halt commercial operations in Russia on a temporary basis.
Factories
Lindt & Sprüngli has 12 factories:
Kilchberg, Switzerland;
Aachen, Germany;
Oloron-Sainte-Marie
Oloron-Sainte-Marie (; oc, Auloron e Senta Maria; eu, Oloroe-Donamaria) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Aquitaine), southwestern France.
History
The town was founded by the ...
, France;
Induno Olona, Italy;
Gloggnitz
Gloggnitz is a mountain town in the Neunkirchen district of Lower Austria, Austria.
Gloggnitz is situated in the south-western part of the Vienna Basin in Lower Austria. It is surrounded by the highest mountains in Lower Austria, Mount Rax (20 ...
, Austria; and
Stratham, New Hampshire, in the United States. The factory in Gloggnitz, Austria, manufactures products under the Hofbauer & Küfferle brand in addition to the Lindt brand. Caffarel's factory is located in
Luserna San Giovanni
Luserna San Giovanni ( Occitan: ''Luzerna e San Jan'', Piedmontese: ''Luserna e San Gioann'', French: Lucerne Saint-Jean) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located in the Val Pellice ...
, Italy, and Ghirardelli's factory is located in
San Leandro, California, in the United States. Furthermore, there are four more factories of Russell Stover in the United States including locations in
Corsicana, Texas
Corsicana is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45, 56 miles northeast of Waco, Texas. The population was 23,770 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Navarro County, and an important Agri-busines ...
,
Abilene, Kansas, and
Iola, Kansas
Iola () is the county seat of Allen County, Kansas, United States. The city is situated along the Neosho River in southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 5,396. It is named in honor of Iola Colborn.
History
...
.
Since 2020, the main factory of Kilchberg includes a visitor centre and museum, referred to as ''Lindt Home of Chocolate''. The museum notably displays the world's largest chocolate fountain, measuring over nine metres tall and containing 1,500 litres of chocolate, flowing from a giant whisk.
Lindt chocolate cafés and stores
Lindt has opened over 410 chocolate cafés and shops all over the world. The cafés' menu mostly focuses on chocolate and desserts. Lindt chocolate cafés also sell handmade chocolates, macaroons, cakes, and ice cream.
On 15 December 2014, 18 people, including eight staff, were
held hostage at a Lindt cafe in Sydney. Three people, including the gunman, died in the incident.
Products
Lindor
''Lindor'' is a Lindt's brand introduced as a
chocolate bar
A chocolate bar (Commonwealth English) or candy bar (some dialects of American English) is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily brea ...
in 1949 and later in 1967 in the form of a
chocolate truffle
A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache centre coated in chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped and toasted nuts (typically hazelnuts or almonds), usually in a spherical, coni ...
.
It is now characterized by a hard chocolate shell and a smooth chocolate filling. The ball or bar are available in an array of flavors, each with a distinctive color wrapper:
Most of the US Lindor truffles are manufactured in
Stratham, New Hampshire.
In 2009, Swiss tennis star
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...
was named as Lindt's "global brand ambassador", and began appearing in a series of commercials endorsing Lindor.
Seasonal confectioneries
The Lindt group also produces the ''Gold Bunny'', a hollow
milk chocolate rabbit in a variety of sizes available every Easter since 1952. Each bunny wears a small colored ribbon bow around its neck identifying the type of chocolate contained within. The milk chocolate bunny wears a red ribbon, the dark chocolate bunny wears a dark brown ribbon, the hazelnut bunny wears a green ribbon, and the white chocolate bunny wears a white ribbon. Other chocolates are wrapped to look like carrots, chicks, or lambs. The lambs are packaged with four white lambs and one black lamb.
During the Christmas season, Lindt produces a variety of items, including chocolate reindeer (which somewhat resemble the classic bunny),
Santa
Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...
, snowmen figures of various sizes, bears, bells, advent calendars, and chocolate ornaments. Various tins and boxes are available in the Lindt stores, the most popular colour schemes being the red and blue. Other seasonal items include Lindt chocolate novelty golf balls.
For St.
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...
, Lindt sells a boxed version of the Gold Bunny, which comes as a set of two kissing bunnies. Other Valentine's Day seasonal items include a selection of heart-shaped boxes of Lindt chocolate truffles.
Due to the 3rd UK lockdown and with all chocolate shops shut, Lindt has begun offering virtual tasting sessions (Feb 2021) with LINDT EXCELLENCE chocolatiers. The experiences can be bought online from their website and include a box of chocolates which are delivered, along with details of how to book the one-hour tasting.
Chocolate bars
Lindt sells a variety of chocolate bars. Flavors from the Excellence range include:
* Mint Intense: dark chocolate infused with mint
* Lime Intense: dark chocolate infused with lime
* Orange Intense: dark chocolate infused with orange essence and almond flakes
* Blackcurrant: dark chocolate infused with pieces of blackcurrant and almond slivers
* White Coconut: white chocolate with crisp flakes of fine coconut
* Coconut: dark chocolate with crisp flakes of coconut
* Almond: white chocolate with whole roasted almonds and caramelized almond pieces
* Poire Intense: pear flavoured chocolate with almond flakes
* Pineapple: dark chocolate with pineapple pieces and caramelized hazelnut pieces
* Cherry Intense
* Regular Dark Chocolate: available in 50%, 60%, 70%, 78%, 85%, 90%, 95%, 99%, or 100% cocoa varieties
* Extra Creamy: milk chocolate
* Toffee Crunch: crunchy toffee bits wrapped in milk chocolate
* Caramel Crunchy: studded with crunchy caramel
* Lindor: the famous balls but in cube form
* Wasabi: an East Asian-inspired dark chocolate mixed with wasabi
* Pistachio: milk chocolate with creamy pistachio filling
* Mandarin: milk chocolate with creamy mandarin filling
* Strawberry: milk chocolate with creamy white chocolate strawberry filling
* Strawberry Margarita: capsule form with strawberry and margarita filling
* White Strawberry: white chocolate with strawberry pieces
* Orange: milk chocolate with creamy orange-flavoured filling
* Cuba: 55% cocoa, single-origin Cuban cocoa
* Madagascar: 70% cocoa, single-origin Madagascar cocoa
* Ecuador: 75% cocoa, single-origin Ecuadorian cocoa
* Vanilla: white chocolate with vanilla beans
* Coffee
* Chili: 70% cocoa dark chocolate with red chilli extract
* Raspberry Intense Dark: dark chocolate with pieces of raspberries and almond slivers
* A Touch of Sea Salt: dark chocolate seasoned with ''fleur de sel''
Petits desserts
Lindt "Petits Desserts" range embodies famous European desserts in a small cube of chocolate. Flavors include: Tarte au Chocolat, Crème Brûlée,
Tiramisu
Tiramisu ( it, tiramisù , from , "pick me up" or "cheer me up") is a coffee-flavoured Italian dessert. It is made of ladyfingers (savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of eggs, sugar, and mascarpone cheese, flavoured w ...
,
Creme Caramel, Tarte Citron,
Meringue
Meringue (, ; ) is a type of dessert or candy, often associated with Swiss, French, Polish and Italian cuisines, traditionally made from whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or cream o ...
, and Noir Orange.
Lindt makes a "Creation" range of chocolate-filled cubes: Milk Mousse, Dark Milk Mousse, White Milk Mousse, Chocolate Mousse, Orange Mousse, Pistachio and Cherry/Chili.
Liqueurs
Bâtons Kirsch are Lindt
Kirsch
Kirschwasser (, ; , German for "cherry water") or kirsch is a clear, colorless brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries, a dark-colored cultivar of the sour cherry. It is now also made from other kinds of cherrie ...
liqueur-filled, chocolate-enclosed tubes dusted in
cocoa powder.
Ice cream
In Australia, Lindt manufactures ice cream in various flavors:
*70% Dark Chocolate
*White Chocolate Framboise
*Sable Cookies and Cream
*Chocolate Chip Hazelnut
*White Chocolate and Vanilla Bean
Products gallery
Lindt chocolate sundae.jpg, Ice cream
Chocoladetruffels Lindt.JPG, Chocolate truffle
A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache centre coated in chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped and toasted nuts (typically hazelnuts or almonds), usually in a spherical, coni ...
s
Chocolats Lindt Création Dessert Fondant chocolat - 2.jpg, Bonbon
Chocolats Lindt Création Dessert Tiramisu - 1.jpg, Bonbon
Chocolats Lindt Création Dessert Fondant chocolat - 1.jpg, Bonbon
Lindt Weihnachtsmann.JPG, Christmas chocolate
Lindt Mousse.jpg, Mousse
Lindt Swiss Luxury Selection 195g - panoramio.jpg, Chocolate box
Criticism
In September 2017, an investigation conducted by NGO Mighty Earth found that a large amount of the cocoa used in chocolate produced by Lindt and other major chocolate companies was grown illegally in
national parks and other protected areas in the
Ivory Coast and
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
, the world's two largest
cocoa producers. Mighty Earth's 2019 annual "Easter Chocolate Shopping Guide" awarded The Good Egg Award to Lindt "for greatest improvement in sustainable policies". However, in terms of agroforestry, Lindt scored only a yellow rating, the second highest of 4, for Agroforestry and a red ('needs to catch up with the industry) for Agrochemical Management on the 202
Chocolate Scorecardwhich since 2020 is a collaboration between Mighty Earth
Be Slavery Freeand other NGOs.
In August 2020, the
Federal Antimonopoly Service
The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) (russian: Федеральная антимонопольная служба России, ФАС России) is the federal-level executive governmental organ that controls the execution of the ...
of Russia (FAS) opened up an
antitrust case against Lindt after a failed response from the company a year earlier. The regulators have found quality differences for the same Lindt products in Russia over what is being sold in Western Markets without informing Russian consumers. According to the FAS, such behavior of foreign producers can lead to a redistribution of demand in the market and lead to unjustified benefits over other competitors, as companies like Lindt can still garner Russian demand for their products through
brand recognition
Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand under different conditions. Brand awareness is one of two dimensions from brand knowledge, an associative network memory model. Brand awareness is a key consi ...
alone without delivering the same quality as in Western Europe. Lindt responded and denied that there are differences for its products sold in Russia and the EU, except for
labeling
Labelling or using a label is describing someone or something in a word or short phrase. For example, the label "criminal" may be used to describe someone who has broken a law. Labelling theory is a theory in sociology which ascribes labelling ...
.
See also
*
List of bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers
A bean-to-bar company produces chocolate by processing cocoa beans into a product in-house, rather than merely melting chocolate from another manufacturer. Some are large companies that own the entire process for economic reasons; others are small ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindt and Sprungli
Brand name chocolate
Swiss chocolate companies
Companies established in 1845
Companies listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange
Food and drink companies established in 1845
Luxury brands
Multinational companies headquartered in Switzerland
Swiss brands
Swiss confectionery
Companies based in the canton of Zürich
Museums in the canton of Zürich