Lindt & Sprüngli shifts supply of Canadian chocolate from USA to Europe
This move is aimed at avoiding Canadian tariffs imposed in response to higher USA customs duties.
CANADA – Lindt & Sprüngli, a Swiss chocolate and confectionery company, has announced plans to shift to supply Canada chocolate from Europe instead of the USA after Canada announced 25% tariffs on all foods from the USA.
After Donald Trump, the President of the USA, announced 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada, retaliated with a 25% tariff on all American goods.
The company announced that it would soon supply all Canadian chocolate from Europe to avoid a trade conflict between the two countries.
A Lindt & Sprungli spokesperson said, “We are monitoring the situation very closely and have identified different ways to mitigate the effect of tariffs. These include possibly supplying countries like Canada and Mexico from our European production facilities.”
CEO Adalbert Lechner also told Reuters that Canada, one of its top 10 markets, can source 100% from Europe. “The volumes we source currently for Canada can all be shifted to Europe,” he said.
The shift is expected to begin by mid-2025. Meanwhile, stores in Canada have already stockpiled Lindt products from the USA to provide a grace period for the change.
FY 2024 results
Recently, the company released its financial report, revealing that it grew organically by 7.8% to CHF 5.47 billion (US$6.19 billion) (previous year: CHF 5.20 billion (US$5.89 billion).
Operating profit (EBIT) increased by 8.7% year-on-year to CHF 884.2 million, with an EBIT margin of 16.2%.
Net income was CHF 672.3 million (US$760.91 million) compared to CHF 671.4 million (US$759.90 million) in the previous year, and the return on sales was 12.3%. Free cash flow was CHF 635.3 million, representing a solid free cash flow margin of 11.6%.
Sales growth in Swiss Francs was 5.1%. Currency effects impacted the result by -2.7%, mainly due to the weaker US dollar and Euro.
Europe had organic sales growth of 9.5%, and the rest of the World had a double-digit growth of 10.0%.
Organic sales growth in North America was solid at 5.0% despite a subdued chocolate market characterized by declining volume and flat value growth.
2025 Outlook
Adalbert Lechner CEO of the Lindt & Sprüngli Group, said, “For 2025, we expect the trend from quantity to quality consumption of premium chocolates to continue, supporting our long-term strategy as a market leader in this category. Consequently, we will continue to invest in our infrastructure and innovation pipeline to meet future growth.”
The company expects 7–9% organic growth in 2025 and an improved operating profit margin of 20–40 basis points.
For the years after 2025, the group will continue to reiterate its strategic medium- to long-term organic sales growth targets of 6–8% with an improvement in the operating profit margin of 20–40 basis points per year.
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