Lindt & Sprüngli reports another record net income

Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG achieved record results in terms of both sales and profitability in financial year 2007, despite a continuing highly competitive and challenging environment. The group reported sales of CHF 2.946 bn in 2007, equivalent to an increase of 13.9% in Swiss francs or 11.8% in local currency terms.


By virtue of the progress in all important markets, the operating result before interest and taxes (EBIT) once again showed double-digit growth reaching CHF 350.8 m, a gain of 18%. The company’s net income improved even stronger by 19.7% to CHF 250.5 m, which was equivalent to a return on sales of 8.5% against 8.1% in the previous year. At the end of 2007, the equity ratio was 56.3%.


Lindt & Sprüngli will be launching its biggest investment program ever over the next three years, at a total cost of more than CHF 750 m. The planned investments in production also aim at a greater independence regarding dollar rate developments in North America.


Thanks to numerous innovations and targeted marketing activities, Lindt & Sprüngli group outpaced the growth of the overall chocolate market and gained substantial new market shares in all countries and segments. The business trend in North America was especially pleasing. Lindt & Sprüngli further anchored its reputation on this particularly contested market, enhancing the position of both brands Lindt and Ghirardelli in the premium segment.


Over the past 15 years, the new management has expanded the group, significantly developed the distribution and continuously improved the level of awareness of the Lindt brand. Many new products and collections are backed by increasingly complex technological innovations. These have been developed in-house and are therefore unique. Still more intensive efforts will be made in the future to develop such production processes and implement them on the manufacturing lines.