Confiserie Sprüngli

Not to be confused with Lindt & Sprüngli.

The Sprüngli shop and café on Bahnhofstrasse/Paradeplatz.

Confiserie Sprüngli is a Swiss luxury confectionery manufacturer founded in 1836 and internationally known for its signature macarons called "Luxemburgerli".

History

The company was founded in 1836^[1] when Rudolf Sprüngli bought a confectioner's shop in Zurich. He started producing chocolates, as David Sprüngli & Fils, in 1845 and opened the shop on Paradeplatz in 1859. In 1882, the chocolate-producing branch of the business split off from the confectionery and now operates independently as Lindt & Sprüngli.^[2]

In 1956, Richard Sprüngli took over the confiserie and positioned it as a luxury brand.^[3] A year later, Sprüngli sold the first Luxemburgerli, a sort of macaroon invented by a Sprüngli confectioner from Luxembourg; they are now the company's flagship product of which about 650 kilograms (1,400 lb) are produced daily.^[4] Since 1994, the family-owned company is led by the brothers Tomas and Milan Prenosil, sixth-generation descendants of Rudolf Sprüngli.^[3]

Products and facilities

“	Here they [the old ladies of Zurich] sit, in bursting bow-tie blouses and holding quilted black purses, their plump wrists cut into by small golden wristwatches whose faces are wreathed in diamonds. Some of these veterans are powdered so heavily that they can barely lift their eyelids (...) The ladies at Sprüngli are old, but prettily made up, just like Zurich.	”
— Philipp Tingler, Juwelen des Schicksals (2005)[5]

As of 2010, Sprüngli employs some 1,000 staff, has annual sales of more than 100 million Swiss francs and a range of 2,000 products, including ice cream and bakery goods.^[3] The company has 19 retail outlets,^[3] some of which also include restaurants. The main store is located on Bahnhofstrasse and Paradeplatz, while smaller outlets are found elsewhere in Zurich, as well as in Basel, Bern, Winterthur and Zug.^[6] Sprüngli products are also delivered worldwide by air mail and are since 1961 produced in Dietikon near Zurich.^[3]

The Sprüngli café on Paradeplatz is a traditional meeting-place of the elderly ladies of Zurich's upper class. Local folklore has it that young men who attend the café alone may signal their availability to these well-to-do women by turning over their coffee spoons in their cups. But according to the company's director, this is a persistent myth reflecting Zurich's more puritanical past, when the Sprüngli café was one of the few places where upper-class women could talk to strangers without risking their reputation.^[7]

References

1. ^ Porter, Darwin (2010). Frommer's Switzerland. Frommer's. p. 120. http://books.google.com/books?id=csEt6xNSro0C&pg=PA120. 
2. ^ "History of Spruengli". Sprüngli. http://geschichte.spruengli.ch/geschichte-spruengli.php. Retrieved 10 August 2010. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Fournier, Anne (10 August 2010). "Sprüngli, six générations au service du luxe". Le Temps. http://www.letemps.ch/Page/Uuid/7dc31782-a3f0-11df-a288-853cb2c8f4f8/Spr%C3%BCngli_six_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rations_au_service_du_luxe. Retrieved 10 August 2010. 
4. ^ "History of Luxemburgerli". Sprüngli. http://geschichte.spruengli.ch/geschichte-luxemburgerli.php. Retrieved 10 August 2010. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ Tingler, Philipp (2005). Juwelen des Schicksals: kurze Prosa. Kein & Aber AG. p. 50. ISBN 9783036951317. http://books.google.com/books?id=8flr-hFZA7cC&pg=PA50.  Quote translated from German by this article's editor.
6. ^ Confiserie Sprüngli. "Verkaufsgeschäfte". http://business.spruengli.ch/filialen.php. Retrieved 10 August 2010. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Schütt, Julian (29 November 2006). "Sprüngli: Das Kaffeehaus als Lebensschule". Die Weltwoche. http://www.weltwoche.ch/ausgaben/2006-48/artikel-2006-48-das-kaffeehaus-als-lebensschule.html. Retrieved 10 August 2010. 

External links

• Confiserie Sprüngli

Coordinates: 47°22′10″N 8°32′21″E / 47.36948°N 8.5392°E / 47.36948; 8.5392