Zurich: The iconic triangular chocolate bars made by Toblerone will soon no longer be produced exclusively in Switzerland.
The bar's chocolate peaks are said to be a tribute to the Swiss Alps close to the country's capital of Bern, where it has been made for more than 100 years.
Now, the brand's American owner, US food giant Mondelez International, is set to relocate some of the manufacturing nearly 600 miles away to the Slovakian capital of Bratislava by the end of the year "to respond to the growing demand".
Mondelez International told AFP in an emailed statement that it was continuing to invest in the Bern plant.
The launch of a production line in Slovakia, where Mondelez also produces Milka and Suchard chocolates, "will unlock significant capacity" at the Bern site, which will eventually allow to "manufacture millions of additional bars," Mondelez said.
"For legal reasons, the changes we are bringing to our products require us to adjust our packaging to comply with the Swiss law, particularly to remove the word 'Switzerland' from the packaging front," the company said.
The move proved hard to swallow for some in Switzerland, unhappy to see a cherished national icon going abroad — especially one which features the famous pyramid-shaped Matterhorn Mountain on its packaging and the bear of Bern, a symbol of the city.
Toblerone produces seven billion chocolate bars a year, with 97 percent of the production exported to 120 countries. They are ubiquitous at airport duty-free shops around the world, where one bar is sold every two seconds, according to Mondelez.