Rodolphe Lindt (1855 - 1909) founded a chocolate factory in Bern in 1879. He developed two important improvements in manufacture which made his chocolate much smoother and less bitter than that of its rivals, as well as being easier to mould.

Lindt put the chocolate mixture into a roller grinder where it was kept moving for 3 days. The action warmed the mixture and the movement aerated it. He further refined the chocolate by adding cocoa butter. The experiment was so successful that he had a special machine built which he called a "conch" because of its vaguely shell-like, long, thin shape.

An additional advantage was that after the conching process, the chocolate had become liquid and could be poured into moulds. This made production much faster: previously the paste had been much more solid, and had to be pressed into the moulds by hand.

Lindt came from a wealthy Bernese family, and was more interested in the quality of his output than he was in making money. He made no attempt to expand his company, or to attract as many customers as possible. He decided himself who he would sell to, and how much, targeting the best social circles, including wealthy foreigners. His chocolate became famous not only because of its quality, but also because of its scarcity.

He built up his customer list almost despite himself, and eventually found himself unable to meet the demand - and all the less able since he actually wanted to reduce his workload rather than increase it. So in 1899 he sold his business to the Zurich chocolate entrepreneur Rudolf Sprüngli (1847-1926). Sprüngli paid 1.5 million gold francs to acquire the rights to Lindt's trademark, manufacturing processes and the existing business.

The two businesses were kept separate, with Lindt still managing the Bern factory on behalf of Sprüngli.

However, Lindt, and two of his relatives, August and Walter, resigned in 1905 - and almost immediately registered a new company under the name of A and W Lindt. Sprüngli brought a case for breach of contract which took 20 years to settle - by which time Sprüngli himself was dead.

A and W Lindt was wound up, and the Lindt & Sprüngli business has continued to thrive and now has production facilities in a number of countries all over the world.