Toblerone chocolate bars are famous for their triangular peaks. But they will soon be losing their most famous one: the image of the Matterhorn prominently displayed on their packaging.
Toblerone was created in the Swiss city of Bern in 1908 by Theodor Tobler, with its distinctive shape reportedly inspired by his mountainous homeland and the Matterhorn in particular.
It has called itself Swiss-made ever since — until now, thanks to the country’s strict requirements governing which products can legally say that.
Mondelez, the U.S. company that owns Toblerone, is shifting part of its production to Slovakia starting in July, in a move announced last year aimed at cutting costs.
That appears to violate Switzerland’s “Swissness Act,” which since 2017 has required products to meet certain criteria in order to use Swiss symbols (like the Swiss cross) or call themselves Swiss-made.
Those regulations aim to protect the credibility and value of the coveted Swiss label, its government explains, citing studies that show the value added by the Swiss branding can represent as much as 20% of the sale price for certain products — and up to 50% for luxury goods — compared to those from other places.
When it comes to food products specifically, at least 80% of raw materials must come from Switzerland, and 100% for milk and dairy. The essential processing must also be done inside the country, with few exceptions (and Toblerone chocolate is evidently not one of them).
“For legal reasons, the changes we’re making to our manufacturing mean we need to adjust our packaging to comply with Swissness legislation,” a Mondelez spokesperson told CNN.
That includes replacing the phrase “of Switzerland” with “established in Switzerland” on the label, and scrapping the iconic Swiss mountain that’s graced its boxes since 1970.
The company has yet to unveil its new design, but says it will still pay homage to its Alpine roots.
A Mondelez spokesperson told the Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung that the packaging will introduce a “modernized and streamlined mountain logo that aligns with the geometric and triangular aesthetic.”
And the company told the BBC that it will also feature a “distinctive new Toblerone typeface and logo that draw further inspiration from the Toblerone archives and the inclusion of our founder, Tobler’s, signature.”
“Bern is an important part of our history and will continue to be so for the future,” it added.
While it may come at a cost, the company says its decision to move production out of the country will help it manufacture “millions” of additional bars.
And the confection itself, a chocolate-honey-almond nougat situation, appears to be staying the same.
That hasn’t always been the case: In 2016, customers in the United Kingdom slammed the company for widening the gaps between the chocolate bar’s peaks, a decision it said had been made to combat the rising cost of ingredients. It brought back its original shape two years later.