Premium Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprungli hiked its 2025 sales target as cocoa price hikes passed on to customers outweighed a drop in volumes.
The company, known for its Lindor pralines and gold chocolate Easter bunnies, hiked its prices by 15.8% to offset record-high cocoa costs.
While sales volumes declined by 4.6%, it still saw revenues climb by 9% to 2.4 billion Swiss francs ($3.0 billion) as consumers continued to buy chocolate despite the price hikes.
Excluding the effect of changing currency values, sales growth was 11.2%.
“We have shown resilience in a challenging market environment,” chief executive Adalbert Lechner said in a statement, pointing to product innovation and cost-cutting efforts to mitigate the cocoa cost increase.
Nevertheless, net profit slid 13.3% to 189 million Swiss francs in the first half of the year.
The company raised its target for organic sales growth to nine to 11%, up from seven to 9% previously.
AFP
