The alliance of the Sprüngli and Lindt families: the origin of the Swiss chocolate empire

David Sprüngli, a robust man with calloused hands, always arrives at the bakery before dawn. There he finds his son, Rudolf. Together they prepare the pastries they will sell in the shop that day. He is sixty years old and it has been a long road to get where he is: orphaned at the age of eight, he worked as a baker's apprentice and ended up as a servant in a Zurich household. In 1836, he finally became the owner of his own establishment. Little by little, he was specializing in a product that was still almost a rarity: chocolate. It used to be sold melted, for drinking. But in 1838, he began producing it in a solid, compact, workable form. Seven years later, he had already opened another shop in the heart of the Swiss capital, on Paradeplatz, surrounded by a refined, bourgeois clientele.

Forty years later, in Bern, a 24-year-old named Rodolphe Lindt leaves the chocolate workshop he runs and goes home. It's Friday. When he returns on Monday, he realizes he's left the machine that mixes the cocoa paste running. He stops it and rushes to the bowl: there's a smooth, aromatic, and very fine mass. Unwittingly, he has just perfected the conching technique, the method for making chocolate homogeneous. They didn't know it yet, but the stories of the Sprüngli family in Zurich and the Lindt family in Bern would become intertwined.

More than a century after those first experiments between workshops, Sprüngli's intuition and Lindt's serendipity have become an industrial giant. Today, Lindt & Sprüngli has an annual turnover of €5.82 billion, with year-on-year growth of nearly 8%, driven primarily by the European market. Europe alone contributes over €2.3 billion in sales, thanks to strong consumer demand for chocolates, gifts, and chocolate figurines. But how did the paths of the two families cross?

The Building of an Empire

In 1892, with Rudolf Sprüngli-Ammann's retirement, the family business split into two branches. On one side were the confectioneries in Zurich; on the other, the chocolate factory, in the hands of Johann Rudolf Sprüngli, who inherited a solid business but faced the challenge of industrializing it. To do so, he needed capital, but above all, to differentiate himself. It was at this point that Rodolphe Lindt entered the picture. The inventor of conching had revolutionized the texture of chocolate, but he lacked both the facilities and the infrastructure necessary to meet the ever-increasing demand. In 1899, Sprüngli bought Lindt's factory in Bern and, with it, the secret of conching, for 1.5 million gold francs. Lindt remained involved for a time, but control of the business passed into the hands of the Sprüngli family.

The turn of the century consolidated the new company. Despite the difficulties of the First World War, the Swiss chocolate industry grew strongly, and Lindt & Sprüngli played a prominent role. As early as 1915, a significant portion of production was destined for export. Over the following decades, the company expanded its presence with subsidiaries and sales agencies in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1949, Lindor was launched, initially in the form of a brick with a creamy filling and, years later, as the spherical chocolates that ultimately defined the brand. In 1952, the golden bunny was added, initially conceived as a family Easter treat and, over time, becoming a global icon. In the second half of the 20th century, Lindt & Sprüngli consolidated a very specific approach to premium chocolate: recognizable products, consistent quality, and a strong association with gifts and celebrations. The definitive shift came with the globalization of the business. From the 1990s onward, it accelerated its international expansion through selective acquisitions: first in Europe, then in the United States. The purchase of historic firms such as Ghirardelli and, later, Russell Stover allowed the company to gain a foothold in North America and position itself among the world's leading players in the sector. Simultaneously, the brand developed a network of its own stores. Today, it operates a network of approximately 500 of its own stores, produces chocolate in 11 factories located in Switzerland, Europe, and the United States, and distributes its products to more than 120 countries.