 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2009) |
 |
|
| Type | Aktiengesellschaft (SIX: LISN) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1845 |
| Founder(s) | David Sprüngli-Schwarz Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann |
| Headquarters |  Kilchberg, Switzerland |
| Key people | Ernst Tanner (Chairman and CEO) |
| Industry | Confectionery |
| Products | Chocolate |
| Revenue | 2.586 billion CHF (2006) |
| Profit | ▲ 209.0 million CHF (2006) |
| Employees | 7,000 (2006) |
| Subsidiaries | Ghirardelli, Caffarel, Hofbauer, Küfferle |
| Website | www.lindt.com |
Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more commonly known as Lindt, is a Swiss premium chocolate and confectionery company.
Contents |
History
The origins of the company date back to 1845. David Sprüngli-Schwarz and his son, Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann owned a small confectionery shop in the old town of Zurich, to which two years later a small factory was added in order to produce chocolate in solid form.
With the retirement of Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann in 1892, the business was divided between his two sons. The younger, 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 finance for his expansion plans, Johann Rudolf converted in 1899 his private company into "Chocolat Sprüngli AG". In that same year, he acquired the chocolate factory of Rodolphe Lindt in Berne and the company changed its name into Aktiengesellschaft Vereinigte Berner und Zürcher Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli.
In 1994, Lindt & Sprüngli acquired the Austrian chocolatier, Hofbauer, 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 due to 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.
Lindor
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 1955. [2] It comes in both a ball and bar variety as well as in a variety of flavours, each flavour having its own colour wrapper as follows:
| Colour | Flavour |
|---|---|
| Yellow | White Chocolate |
| Red | Milk Chocolate |
| Blue | Dark Chocolate |
| Black | Extra Dark (60% Cocoa outside and dark chocolate filling) |
| Pink | Raspberry |
| Green | Mint |
| Black with green | Dark Peppermint |
| Orange | Orange |
| Brown | Hazelnut |
| Brown and Gold (with print 'St Moritz') | Milk chocolate shell filled with sugared hazelnut chunks[3] |
| Light Brown (with print 'Peanut Butter') | Peanut Butter |
| Dark Brown (with print 'Café') | Mocha |
| Light Blue | Stracciatella: white chocolate shell with cocoa pieces with a smooth white filling |
| Gold with blue | Cinnamon |
| Dark Green with red | Peppermint |
| Black with ghosts, white and blue snowmen, lime green with flowers, or red with hearts | Milk outside with smooth white filling (seasonal flavor) |
Most of the US Lindor truffles are manufactured in Stratham, New Hampshire. In Switzerland the chocolates are referred to as "Lindor Kugeln" or "Lindor balls".[citation needed]
Seasonal confectioneries
Lindt also produces the 'Gold Bunny', a hollow milk chocolate rabbit in a variety of sizes available every Easter. Each bunny wears a small red ribbon bow around its neck, with a bell attached. 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. Also chocolates wrapped to look like carrots, chicks and lambs are 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, 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 products
Other products that Lindt is famous for are its block chocolates. Current flavours from the Excellence range include:
- Mint intense: dark chocolate infused with mint
- Orange intense: dark chocolate infused with orange essence and almond flakes
- White Coconut: white chocolate with crisp flakes of fine coconut.
- Almond: white chocolate with whole roasted almonds and caramelised almond pieces
- Poire intense: pear flavoured chocolate with almond flakes
- Cherry intense
- Regular dark chocolate: available in 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
- Pistachio: a creamy pistachio filling in milk chocolate
- Strawberry: a creamy white chocolate strawberry filling in milk chocolate
- Strawberry margarita: 'capsule' form with strawberry and margurita filling
- Orange: a creamy orange flavoured filling in milk chocolate
- Cuba: 55% cocoa, origin Cuba
- Madagascar: 70% cocoa, origin Madagascar
- Ecuador: 75% cocoa, origin Ecuador
- Vanilla: White chocolate with vanilla bean
- Coffee
- Chili: a 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 sea salt
Their 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 and Noir Orange.
Lindt Chocolat Café
Lindt has opened four chocolate cafes in Sydney, Australia. The first is located at Martin Place and opened in 2004, a second store in Cockle Bay Wharf (2006) in Darling Harbour and a third on George Street in 2007. A fourth store opened in Miranda Westfield, in Sydney's Sutherland Shire in November 2008. A Lindt Chocolat Café has recently opened in Melbourne, Australia on the ground floor of 271 Collins Street,[4] another café has opened at Chadstone Shopping Centre in August.
There is also planning in the earliest of stages for the first United States chocolate café in Wrentham, MA.
The café has rich hot chocolates which are available in dark or milk chocolate. They also sell crafted chocolates, cakes and ice cream.
Ice cream flavours include:
- Black forest: dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and sour cherry ripple
- 70% dark chocolate
- White chocolate framboise: white chocolate ice cream with raspberry sauce ripple
- Sable cookies and cream: a sweet cream ice cream with soft cookies swirled throughout
- Duo: hazelnut ice cream with chocolate chips
- Almond praline
- Vanilla bean
References
- ^ Wiggins, Jenny (2009-03-17), "Lindt closes lid on most of its US stores", Financial Times, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ebefec5a-131c-11de-a170-0000779fd2ac.html, retrieved 2009-03-17
- ^ www.lindt.com/1610/3429/3497/3503.asp
- ^ http://filbertsandchocolate.blogspot.com/2009/03/lindor-st-moritz.html
- ^ OzSoapbox: My dining review - Lindt Chocolate Cafe Melbourne
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lindt & Sprüngli |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
