Lindt & Sprüngli is strengthening its commitment to Switzerland as the home base by investing again in the expansion of capacity at its production facility in Olten.
By 2024, around 74 million Swiss francs will have been invested into the expansion of the Lindt Cocoa Center, which manufactures cocoa mass for all Lindt production plants in Europe. The start of construction works marks the first significant milestone for this major project.
As a long-standing Swiss company with a history going back more than 175 years, Lindt & Sprüngli is deeply committed to Switzerland as a business location and invests continuously in the expansion of its three sites in Kilchberg, Olten and Altendorf. Cocoa mass has been manufactured in Olten for the Lindt brand since 1991, initially exclusively for the production facility in Kilchberg near Zurich. Since then, the significance of the plant in Olten for the Lindt & Sprüngli Group as a whole has increased steadily, and it has evolved into the largest and most important cocoa mass plant within the global production network.
Lindt & Sprüngli is one of the few major manufacturers to produce chocolate from “bean to bar”. This begins with the purchase of the cocoa beans, continues with the production of its own cocoa mass, and ends with refining this into premium chocolate. Olten thus plays a key role. Its extensive process expertise and decades of experience in manufacturing enable it to ensure that Lindt’s high quality standards are sustained. All European production facilities are supplied with Swiss cocoa mass from Olten. The cocoa mass delivered from Olten then undergoes further processing and refinement, to rigorous Swiss manufacturing standards, at the production facilities in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and France.
“The expansion and modernization of the Lindt Cocoa Center will enable us to increase the capacity of the plant by 50% from 2024 and to keep pace with anticipated market demand. Together with the last expansion in 2018, a total of over 100 million Swiss francs will have been invested in the Olten facility within a very short period”, says Marco Peter, CEO of Lindt & Sprüngli Switzerland.
The focus in 2021 is on the additional expansion of production and of production-related areas at the plant. The expansion will include new production lines, a new loading bay for cocoa mass, a state-of-the-art laboratory and the redesign of the plant’s administrative offices. This extensive enlargement will significantly alter and influence the exterior design of the plant. In addition, optimized plant logistics regarding inbound and outbound deliveries will lead to an improvement in the flow of traffic using the public infrastructure around the plant premises.
On today’s start of construction on this major project, Dieter Weisskopf, CEO of the Lindt & Sprüngli Group, was keen to emphasize: “Our new investment of around CHF 74 million is evidence of our firm commitment to Switzerland as a business location. The new capacity provided by the plant’s expansion into an ultramodern and efficient cocoa mass production facility will thus secure the long-term supply of all the production sites in Europe and the future growth of the Lindt & Sprüngli Group as a whole.”
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