Switzerland is famous for numerous things for example banking, precision time-making, mountains, neutrality and of course – chocolate! Although Swiss chocolate may not be as rich as its Belgian counterpart, it’s superior in taste to many and certainly more popular throughout around the globe.
The famous Toblerone bar comprising triangular chocolate shapes ingrained with honey and almond nougat and moulded into a triangular bar, was named after the Switzerland chocolate manufacturer Jean Tobler who very first manufactured it in the year1867. Now the world-famous bar, whose angular shape is designed to represent the iconic Swiss Matterhorn, is now produced by globe confectionary giant Kraft Foods who have their European headquarters just outside Zurich in Switzerland.
Although an enormous multi-national company generating annual worldwide sales of forty two billion dollars per year, Kraft is still only the world’s second largest food and beverage manufacturer lagging behind confectionary giants Nestle; a Switzerland organization loacted in the city of Vevey. Within the same year as Tobler launched his brand new bar the two vendors that were eventually to merge in 1905 and become recognized as The Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company were formed.
Further mergers and expansion followed all through the twentieth century and also the chocolate giant became recognized as just Nestle in nineteen seventy seven. A decade later the ambitious organization has also acquired iconic American food producer Carnation and noted York-based organization Rowntree Mackintosh, along with their world-famous Kit Kat brand. The coup de grace for Nestle was their strategic partnership with Pierre Marcolini – a noted Belgian chocolate maker, established in December 2007.
Since then, flights to Geneva have carried many employees and executives from hundreds of locations throughout the world to the headquarters or regional offices of confectionary giants based in Switzerland.The chocolate and confectionary sectors are big in Switzerland for a really great reason, namely the fact that the Switzerland citizens have a very sweet tooth. They boast the highest per capita rate of consumption of chocolate at almost twelve kg per individual per year and manage to consume just under half of all the country’s chocolate output; the rest is exported to Europe and North America, primarily Germany. In addition both Nestle and Kraft have a substantial number of manufacturing plants based throughout Europe and also the rest of the world to supply chocolate and food products to local markets.
So, the next time you are browsing any duty free store at the air port have a look at just how much Switzerland chocolate is for sale. But, if you’re heading for Geneva, don’t bother buying any chocolate prior to your departure.