Lindt & Sprüngli


Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known simply as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets.

History

Founding and early years

The origins of the company date back to 1836, when David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his son Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann bought a small confectionery shop in the old town of 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 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 in Bern, and the company changed its name to "Aktiengesellschaft Vereinigte Berner und Züricher Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli".

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 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's Terminal 1 and its flagship Canadian shop in Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Toronto.

Factories

Lindt & Sprüngli has 12 factories: 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 & 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. Furthermore, there are four more factories of Russell Stover in the United States.

Lindt chocolate cafés

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, Australia. Three people, including the gunmen, died in the incident.

Products

Lindor

Originally, Lindor was introduced as a chocolate bar in 1949 and later in 1967 in the form of a ball. Lindor is a type of chocolate produced by Lindt, which is now characterised by a hard chocolate shell and a smooth chocolate filling. It comes in both a ball and a bar variety, available in a variety of flavours. Each flavour listed below has its own wrapper colour:
ColourFlavour
Black/SilverExtra Dark
Black with Ghosts;
White and Blue Snowmen;
Lime Green with Pink, Purple, and Yellow Flowers and Butterflies;
Lime Green with White and Yellow Flowers;
Red with Hearts		Milk outside with smooth white filling
Black with GreenDark Peppermint
BlueDark Chocolate
BrownHazelnut
Brown and GoldMilk chocolate shell filled with sugared hazelnut chunks
Dark Brown Mocha
Dark GreenPeppermint
Gold and WhiteWhite Chocolate
RedMilk Chocolate
Light BlueStracciatella: white chocolate shell with cocoa pieces with a smooth white filling
Light PinkIrish Cream
Hot PinkStrawberries and Cream
LavenderBlueberries and Cream
Light PurpleAlmond Case
Lime GreenLemon
AmberMango and Cream
OrangeDark chocolate shell filled with orange chocolate filling
Deep PinkRaspberry
GreenMint
PurpleVanilla
TurquoiseCoconut
White with GoldMarc de Champagne
Sky BlueSea Salt
Sky Blue with White Stripe Milk and Cereal Crunch
Bronze Caramel
Dark AquaSea Salt & Caramel
Orange and BrownSpiced pumpkin
Brown with white helixGingerbread
Pink with yellow labelNeapolitan

Most of the US Lindor truffles are manufactured in Stratham, New Hampshire.
In 2009, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer 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 coloured 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, Santa, 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, 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 Lindor chocolate truffles.

Chocolate bars

Lindt sells a variety of chocolate bars. Flavours from the Excellence range include:
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 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 liqueur-filled, chocolate-enclosed tubes dusted in cocoa powder.

Ice cream

In Australia, Lindt manufactures ice cream in various flavours:
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, 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".