ZURICH, Switzerland — Toblerone will have to drop “of
Switzerland” from its packaging as the
world-famous mountain-shaped chocolate will no longer be exclusively produced
in its home country from 2023.
اضافة اعلان
Established in 1908
in the Tobler family factory, the instantly-recognizable triangular chocolate
is produced exclusively in Bern, the Alpine nation’s capital.
But the brand’s
owner,
US food giant Mondelez International, said Toblerone will open a new
production line in Slovakia by the end of 2023 “to respond to the growing
demand”.
The move proved
hard to swallow for some in Switzerland, unhappy to see a cherished national
icon going abroad — especially one which features the famous pyramid-shaped
Matterhorn mountain on its packaging and the bear of Bern, symbol of the city.
Mondelez
International told AFP in an emailed statement that it was continuing to invest
in the Bern plant, “the homeland of Toblerone”.
“Bern is an
important part of our history and will continue to be so in the future,” it
said.
The launch of a
production line in
Slovakia, where Mondelez also produces Milka and Suchard
chocolates, “will unlock significant capacity” at the Bern site, which will
eventually allow it to “manufacture millions of additional bars,” Mondelez
said.
Seven billion bars
But the new plant in
Bratislava means they will have to change the
labeling.
“For legal reasons,
the changes we are bringing to our production require us to adjust our
packaging to comply with Swiss law, in particular to remove the word
‘Switzerland’ from the front of the packaging,” the company said.
Swiss newspaper Le
Temps added Toblerone to a list of emblematic products no longer exclusively
produced in Switzerland, including Sugus sweets, Milka chocolate and Ovaltine.
Toblerone produces
seven billion chocolate bars a year, with 97 percent exported to 120 countries.
They are ubiquitous
at airport duty-free shops around the world, where one bar is sold every two
seconds, according to Mondelez.
“For the export, I
would not assume that this plays a role, at least for its current customers,”
said Tobias Schalger, professor of marketing at Lausanne University.
“Some like
Toblerone for its taste, some for its form, some for its packaging — and some
as it is Swiss. This may have an impact, but I assume this impact will be
fairly small and not long-lasting.”
The name is a play on words from Tobler and “torrone” — the
Italian name for honey-almond nougat.
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