Lindt plans $217m investment on US and European factory expansions

By Oliver Nieburg

- Last updated on GMT

Lindt intends to invest in its core factories such as its plant in Kilchberg, Switzerland (pictured) and its US manufacturing bases
Lindt intends to invest in its core factories such as its plant in Kilchberg, Switzerland (pictured) and its US manufacturing bases

Related tags Switzerland Lindt

Lindt & Sprüngli intends to invest CHF 200m ($217m) in new production lines at existing plants in the US and Europe in response to rising demand in developed markets.

Sylvia Kälin, corporate communications for Lindt told ConfectioneyNews: “This will mainly target the fastest growing markets like the US location, the French and German locations and for sure the Swiss location.”

US and Swiss factories

The Lindt group has two factories in the US: One in Stratham, New Hampshire for Lindt brands and the other in San Francisco, California, for its Ghirardelli subsidiary.

The firm reported 12.7% organic growth in North America in its H1 results released today to CHF 301m ($327m).

The company’s factory in its homeland Switzerland is not the firm’s biggest but is strategically important as an export hub.

Kälin said that the investment in added capacity would be used to grow the Lindt group’s entire product portfolio rather than specific fast growing brands, but did say that seasonal items were performing particularly well.

Staff additions

She added that the extra capacity would see Lindt would take on new staff.

The company’s employee base has been growing steadily in recent years. In the first half of 2013, the number of full-time Lindt employees grew by 737 to a total of 8,187.

The firm recently completed a supplementary building to its Stratham site that has enabled it to produce cocoa mass locally rather than importing from Switzerland. In Germany, it also recently upped its stocking and logistic capacity.

See HERE​ for the company's first half performance.

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