The producer Mondelez revealed that some of the production of the renowned Toblerone will move from Switzerland to Slovakia by the end of 2023. The "Swiss" label on the triangle chocolate bars' packaging will be removed as a result. The brand's American owner plans to move some production to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, which is approximately 600 miles away.
The spokesperson of the manufacturer Mondelez, Livia Kolmitz said, “We'll start a limited Toblerone manufacture in Slovakia at the end of 2023.” This statement was later confirmed by a reputed Swiss journalist.
Instead of discussing expense concerns and the substantial cost inflation encountered by food industries, Kolmitz linked the change to strong growth. Additionally, this also meant that the company will expand its Bern, Switzerland, production facility.
Kolmitz further said, “The decision will allow the Bern facility to release enormous capacity of production which will help the company to make millions of extra bars in the future who will continue to produce Toblerone’s best-selling 100-gram bars in Bern." This statement also confirmed that there will be no job cuts and the employees or workers won’t lose their jobs.
Kolmitz added, "We'll relaunch the Toblerone packaging from this summer,” stating the brand was “founded in Switzerland," pointing to the brand's British website to offer a sense of what the new packaging would look like. The brand is making some major changes to stay true to its origins while also taking measures to optimally survive in this economy.
Since the 1990s, Switzerland has been the sole producer of Toblerone, which was first introduced in 1908. The "Switzerland" label cannot be placed on chocolates made outside of Switzerland, according to rigorous Swiss labelling regulations. Thus, this allusion will need to be dropped by Mondelez. In Slovakia, the company also manufactures Milka and Suchard chocolates.
Theodor Tobler and Emil Baumann, two chocolatiers, created the Toblerone chocolate bar in 1908. Tobler and Toronne, the Italian names for honey, nuts, and nougat, were combined to come up with the name. Its distinctive triangle form was there from the beginning and has been protected by law since 1909. It is well acknowledged that the nearby mountains, particularly the Matterhorn, served as inspiration. One of the highest mountains in the Alps and all of Europe, it is 4,478 metres high and almost perfectly shaped like a pyramid. Toblerone comes in a variety of tastes, but the initial dark chocolate flavour was introduced in 1969, followed by the white chocolate flavour in 1973, and the fruit and nut flavour in 2008.
Kraft Foods, a U.S. corporation, now known as Mondelez, acquired Toblerone in 1990.