Business · Greater Swiss Mountain Dog
Investors turn on Lindt's patriarch – the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog keeps pulling his cart
Der Hündeler, Edition of Thursday, 12 November 2026
What happened
Ernst Tanner has been at the helm of the Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprüngli for 33 years. Investors are now calling for him to step down. Swiss broadcaster SRF describes it as a crisis at the chocolate company and a revolt against its patriarch.
What does this mean for your Greater Swiss Mountain Dog?
Thirty-three years in the same job amounts to roughly three lifetimes for a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. He still considers it a perfectly sensible tenure: once you have been harnessed to a cart, you do not ask about retirement age. His ancestors hauled milk to the village cheese dairy, and for health reasons nobody ever told him it can also be turned into chocolate. His relationship with the industry is therefore that of a supplier who has never been paid in kind. Investors at the garden gate would have been dutifully announced, not chased off. In his view, questions of leadership are settled by whoever holds the lead.
What you can do now: Keep the chocolate on the very top shelf. He can reach the one below it without effort.