Lindt & Sprüngli - Lindt & Sprüngli, one of Switzerland's largest chocolate manufacturers, saw sales increase in the first half of 2006 by 17.2% to SFr983.4 million, up from SFr839.1 for the first six months of 2005.
Operating profit rose 15.5% to SFr9.8 million. The strong performance is above the overall industry's and the company says it is gaining market share in all its markets.
Lindt forecasts strong growth for the year as a whole, despite the hot summer of 2006. It says of the chocolate industry, "two different trends are becoming increasingly important: on the one hand, there is continuing growth in the premium quality segment with an increasing preference for dark chocolate with a high cocoa content and, on the other, an overall positive development of the low-priced private labels."