The beginnings of Lindt
The origins of Lindt & Sprüngli lie in the two chocolate factories in Rudolf Sprüngli in Horgen and Zurich (former Werdmühle , today Werdmühleplatz) and from Rodolphe Lindt in Bern. Rudolf Sprüngli Junior took over his father's company in 1891. A year later Confiserie Sprüngli spun off as a separate company. In 1899 Rudolf Sprüngli built the factory in Kilchberg and converted the company into a stock corporation in the same year. The Chocolat Sprüngli AG Soon afterwards, he took over Rodolphe Lindt's Bernese chocolate factory along with the patent for it Conching method. The Joint stock company United Berner and Zurich Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli was born. The old Lindt House in Bern Matt quarters is still painted with the company logo today.
In Germany in 1935 with the Leonard Monheim AG, Berlin concluded a license agreement for production. In 1988, Lindt & Sprüngli took over production there itself and has since produced the majority of the items sold internationally Aachen near the West station. The plant in Aachen acts as Competence center for hollow figures .
The initial public offering von Lindt & Sprüngli laid the foundation for international expansion in 1986: in 1989 the production and administration building in Stratham was commissioned, New Hampshire, USA. In the same year the Lindt & Sprüngli SA in France is fully owned by the parent company. In 1993 the long-standing Licensee Bulgheroni SpA in the Italian Induno Olona as Lindt & Sprüngli SpA integrated into the company. The following year the company was founded in Austria Lindt & Sprüngli (Austria) GmbH and the integration of the Viennese Confectionery Hofbauer into the company. In 1997 the Italian company “Caffarel” was founded Turin bought out and a Lindt & Sprüngli Company in Sydney founded. At the beginning of 1998, the “Ghirardelli Chocolate Company” was acquired San Francisco, the second oldest American chocolate factory. Further subsidiaries can be found in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden, Spain and South Africa. In July 2014, Lindt & Sprüngli announced the takeover of the traditional US confectionery manufacturer Russell Stover Candies Inc., the largest in the company's history to date. With Russell Stover, that also the brand Whitman's and has a market share of 60% for pralines in the USA, Lindt & Sprüngli became the third largest company in the chocolate industry in North America and now also has a nationwide presence there with its other brands. However, Russel Stover's product range was far too broad and its sales were too seasonal. Lindt and Sprüngli tried to reduce this dependence on Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter in the hope of perpetuating the American business, which generated a third of the company's sales.
Ernst Tanner served as CEO from 1993 until he was replaced by Dieter Weisskopf in 2016. Tanner also leads the board of directors as president. Weisskopf held the CEO position for six years until Adalbert Lechner, who previously worked as head of Lindt Germany, took over in October 2022. In addition, Daniel Studer joined the group management on September 1, 2022.
In 2021, Lindt achieved sales of 4.6 billion francs, an increase of 14.2 percent compared to the previous year. Profit increased by 53.2 percent to 490.5 million francs. In the previous year, sales fell by 6.1 percent to 4.02 billion francs. Continue reading...
