Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets.
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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. Two years later, a small factory was added that produced chocolate in solid form. In 1845, they moved to the Paradeplatz.
With the retirement of Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann in 1892, the business was divided between his two 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 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" (United Bern and Zurich Lindt and Sprungli Chocolate Factory Ltd.).
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
After Lindt recorded net profits of $4.7 million in the 2011 calendar year, the marketing team stated that its market share amounted to 29%, surpassing its previous years. On 14 July 2014, Lindt bought Russell Stover Candies, maker of Whitman's Chocolate, for about $1.5 billion, the company's largest acquisition to date.
Factories
Lindt & Sprüngli has six 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.
Lindt Chocolate Cafés
Lindt has opened eight chocolate cafés in Australia: four in Sydney and four in Melbourne. The cafés' menu offers breakfast and lunch, but mostly focuses on chocolate and desserts. They also sell handmade chocolates, macaroons, cakes, and ice cream.
- Sydney: The first café opened at Martin Place in 2004. The second store opened in Cockle Bay Wharf in Darling Harbour in 2006. The third store is located in George Street and opened in 2007. A fourth store opened in Westfield Miranda in 2008. In December 2014, employees and customers in the Martin Place café were held hostage by a gunman, resulting in the deaths of two hostages and the perpetrator.
- Melbourne: Lindt opened a flagship chocolate café at 271 Collins Street in July 2009, and a second store at Chadstone Shopping Centre in August 2009. In June 2011, Lindt opened their third café on Chapel Street in South Yarra and their fourth in November on Southbank.
- United States: Wrentham, Massachusetts is in the early stages of planning the first chocolate café in the U.S.
Products
Lindor
Originally, Lindor was a truffle ball that Lindt & Sprüngli introduced in 1949. Lindor is a type of chocolate produced by Lindt, which is now characterized by a hard chocolate shell and a smooth chocolate filling. It comes in both a ball and a bar variety, as well as in a variety of flavours. Each flavour listed below has its own wrapper colour:
Most of the US Lindor truffles are manufactured in Stratham, New Hampshire.
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.
Seasonal confectioneries
Lindt 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. Additionally, each chocolate is wrapped to look like a carrot, a chick, or a lamb. 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, 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 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:
- Mint Intense: dark chocolate infused with mint
- Orange Intense: dark chocolate infused with orange essence and almond flakes
- Black Currant: dark chocolate infused with pieces of black currant 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 caramelised almond pieces
- Poire Intense: pear flavoured chocolate with almond flakes
- Pineapple: dark chocolate with pineapple pieces and caramelised hazelnut pieces
- Cherry Intense
- Regular Dark Chocolate: available in 50%, 60%, 70%, 85%, 90%, or 99% 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 Madagascan cocoa
- Ecuador: 75% cocoa, single-origin Ecuadoran cocoa
- Vanilla: white chocolate with vanilla beans
- Coffee
- Chili: 70%-cocoa dark chocolate with red chili 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'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, 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:
- 70% Dark Chocolate
- White Chocolate Framboise
- Sable Cookies and Cream
- Chocolate Chip Hazelnut
- White Chocolate and Vanilla Bean
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 Ivory Coast and Ghana. The countries are the world's two largest cocoa producers.
The report documents how in several national parks and other protected areas, 90% or more of the land mass has been converted to cocoa. Less than four percent of Ivory Coast remains densely forested, and the chocolate companies' laissez-faire approach to sourcing has driven extensive deforestation in Ghana, as well.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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