Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CHOCOLATE

Sweet news: Swiss chocolatier Lindt scores 7.8% rise in global net profits

Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli is seeking to lure more sweet-toothed consumers in Japan, China, South Africa, Brazil and Russia, where the group said Tuesday it enjoys "enormous potential".

Published: 6 March 2018 11:23 CET
Sweet news: Swiss chocolatier Lindt scores 7.8% rise in global net profits
Photo: Depositphotos

Lindt, a leader in the affordable luxury chocolate segment, said in its annual report that subsidiaries in those five countries had produced “an above average result” in 2017, with organic growth of 12.4 percent.

“This positive trend is being fuelled by consumers' growing demand for quality, greater purchasing power and also a growing desire for chocolate with a high cocoa content,” Lindt said.

People gave into their temptation for Lindt chocolate elsewhere as well, with global net profits rising 7.8 percent from 2016.

Meanwhile, sales hit an all-time record for the 175-year-old company of more than 4 billion Swiss francs (€3.45 billion, $4.3 billion).

Lindt feted an improved market situation for key raw materials – cocoa beans, cocoa butter and sugar – with “much better harvests in 2016/17, allowing the previous record-high prices to ease back to normal levels”.

That should allay chocolate lovers' fears of an imminent crisis for their favourite treat.

It was good news all round, bar in the United States, the world's largest chocolate market but a weaker one for Lindt, where company sales dipped slightly, it said.

The dip came even as Lindt sought to attract customers with new packaging and discounts over Christmas, and with the relaunch of a sugar-free chocolate line.

CHOCOLATE

Swiss chocolate consumption falls to 40-year low in pandemic

The desire for comfort food during the pandemic has failed to boost the fortunes of Swiss chocolate.

Published: 2 March 2021 18:13 CET
Swiss chocolate consumption falls to 40-year low in pandemic
Photo: STEFAN WERMUTH / AFP

Swiss chocolate makers were perhaps expecting a sweet spot as people turned to comfort food during the pandemic but are instead facing devastating 2020 figures showing consumption in Switzerland melting to a 40-year-low.

Chocosuisse, the national federation of Swiss chocolate makers, painted a bleak picture this week of the impact that the Covid-19 crisis had taken on the industry, with plunging production, exports and even consumption.

And Lindt and Sprungli, one of the wealthy Alpine nation’s most famous chocolate makers, published its annual results Tuesday detailing a nearly 11-percent drop in its 2020 revenues, to 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.4 billion, 3.6 billion euros).

Amid lockdowns and a pandemic-fuelled economic crisis last year, it may not be surprising that Swiss chocolate makers overall saw their production fall, shrinking 10 percent compared to 2019, to 180,000 tonnes, according to Chocosuisse.

And exports, which account for nearly 70 percent of Swiss chocolate makers’ revenues, fell by more than that, slumping 11.5 percent in 2020, to 126,000 tonnes.

More surprising perhaps is that the country renowned for its love of high-quality cocoa products, where people gobble up more chocolate per capita than anywhere else in the world, also saw consumption drop.

Lowest since 1982

In fact, annual consumption fell to below the symbolic threshold of 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) per person, dipping to 9.9 kilos — the lowest level since 1982.

A major contributor to the drop, Chocosuisse chief Urs Furrer told AFP, was the steep decline in foreign tourists, who tend to tip the consumption scales.

The per capita chocolate consumption in a country is calculated by dividing the volumes sold by the number of inhabitants, leading to inflated figures in Switzerland, where chocolate treats are a favourite souvenir.

“It would be impossible to calculate the exact consumption of residents, because in shops, the salespeople do not know if their customer lives in Switzerland or is a tourist,” Furrer said.

But the absence of tourists is not the whole explanation for last year’s decline. In Switzerland as elsewhere, the health crisis and accompanying restrictions including forced teleworking, has had a clear impact on consumption habits.

“Consumption also dropped in areas that are usually crowded with passers-by, like train stations and city centres,” Furrer said, pointing out that chocolate was often an impulse buy by people on the move.

Physical distancing requirements have also taken a toll on social occasions where handing over a box of chocolates might be expected.

“The sale of gift boxes of pralines has also declined,” Furrer said.

At the same time however, the sale of raw products like chocolate masse usually used by chocolatiers, bakeries and patisseries rose last year as more amateurs delved into making their own sweets at home.

SHOW COMMENTS