Lindt investors seek board shake-up at chocolate maker after CEO ouster

By Oliver Hirt and John Revill

ZURICH, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Influential investors in Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli LISN.S are calling for sweeping boardroom changes at the maker of Lindor truffles after pricing missteps hammered the share price and led to the ousting of its CEO last month.

The criticism, based on interviews with five major investors including three top-20 shareholders, adds to pressure on Lindt as it searches for a new CEO. Its shares are down about a quarter this year after outlook cuts and weak performance in Europe.

After Lindt ousted CEO Adalbert Lechner following two sales warnings this year, the shareholders said they wanted the board refreshed and the powers of Chairman Ernst Tanner, 80, curbed. Tanner has been chairman for 32 years, and executive chairman since 2016.

"Renewal cannot stop at the executive management. It should also happen on the board," said Ingo Speich of Lindt investor Deka, adding that the Swiss firm faced structural challenges that required "new thinking".

"The current concentration of power must be abolished," added Speich.

Of the five investors Reuters spoke to, only one large shareholder backed the company's current board. Six other major shareholders contacted by Reuters declined to comment.

The comments mark the first major rebuke of Lindt's board since Lechner's ouster last month. Tanner has faced opposition before, with some shareholders voting against his reelection at annual meetings in recent years.

Lindt said the board had launched the search for a new CEO and expected to appoint a successor in the second quarter of 2027. Lechner could not be reached for comment. Tanner declined to comment.

"The board also reviews the board composition regularly," a Lindt spokesperson said. "Succession planning is a fixed part of its work."

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'THE WORLD HAS CHANGED'

Lindt ran into difficulties this year after raising prices in response to soaring cocoa costs, hitting sales volumes as consumers tightened their belts.

Tanner acknowledged last month that Lindt had misjudged consumers' willingness to pay after hiking prices by 19% in 2025 and a further 12% in the first half of 2026.

The company cut its organic growth forecast to between 0% and 2%, well below the 10.9% five-year average. Germany head Michal Spiller left alongside Lechner, with former CEO Dieter Weisskopf returning as interim CEO.

Spiller could not be reached for comment.

Vincent Kaufmann, CEO of Ethos, Switzerland's leading shareholder advisory group, said Lindt suffered from a lack of adequate checks and balances on its supervisory board.

"The search for a new CEO is a first step ... However, a change of CEO alone will not resolve the governance issues Ethos has raised, which concern the board itself," Kaufmann said, adding that only three of the board's eight members were independent according to its criteria while company pension funds were overrepresented.

One top-20 shareholder, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the board shared responsibility for the pricing missteps and needed new blood, noting that six of its eight members were at least 70 years old and that Tanner had served as chairman since 1994.

Lindt owed Tanner a great deal, the investor said, but "the world has changed greatly over the past 30 years".

Tanner has said he won't step down, saying his priority is to get the company back on track. He remains strongly placed, personally holding 2.3% of the company's shares, while two pension funds he chairs have more than 15% of the voting rights.

A second top-20 investor said he understood why Tanner was staying and defended the price increases, which were key to protecting margins at the $24 billion company.

Lindt reaffirmed its medium- to long-term goal of 6% to 8% annual sales growth, though investors say achieving it could prove challenging.

A third top-20 investor said it could be difficult for the company to quickly recapture previous growth rates, with challenges around pricing and the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, which could curb chocolate consumption.