François-Louis Cailler (11 June 1796 – 6 April 1852) was a Swiss entrepreneur and early

chocolatier A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other ingredients. Education and training Traditionally, chocolatiers, ...

who founded

Cailler Cailler is a Swiss chocolate brand and production factory based in Broc. It was founded in Vevey by François-Louis Cailler in 1819 and remained independent until the early 20th century, when it associated with other producers. Shortly before, ...

, the first modern brand of

Swiss chocolate Swiss chocolate is chocolate produced in Switzerland. While cacao beans and other ingredients such as sugar cane originate from outside Switzerland, the actual production of the chocolate must take place in Switzerland. Switzerland's chocolates h ...

and the oldest still in existence, in 1819.

Biography

Cailler was born in

Vevey Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used. It was the seat of the district of ...

, in the

canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms ...

, on 11 June 1796, in a family originally from Daillens. After an apprenticeship as a

grocer A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

in Vevey, he travelled to northern Italy where, in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, he learned the art of chocolate-making from the

Caffarel Caffarel is a chocolate-manufacturing company based in Luserna San Giovanni, Italy, which is a subsidiary of Lindt & Sprüngli Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company fo ...

chocolate firm. After returning to Switzerland in 1818, Cailler began a partnership with Abram L.C. Cusin of

Aubonne Aubonne () is a municipality in the district of Morges in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. In 2011 the former municipality of Pizy merged into Aubonne and on 1 January 2021 Montherod merged into it. History The municipality was settled v ...

, operating a grocery business in Vevey under the name of ''Cailler & Cusin''. The following year, in 1819, he set up a chocolate factory in a converted former

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

, in

Corsier Corsier (, locally ) is a municipality of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. History Corsier is first mentioned in 1297 as ''Corsiacum''. Between 1816-58 Corsier and Anières formed a single municipality. Geography Corsier has an area, , of ...

, near Vevey, thus establishing what would become the Cailler company, and the world’s first mechanised chocolate factory. Starting in 1820, Cailler rented additional factory space in the area in order to produce chocolate in larger scale. The partnership with Cusin, however, was dissolved the following year, and by 1826 Cailler's business went bankrupt. Around this time he married Louise-Albertine Perret, from Boudry. After the company's recover, Cailler bought two new water powered factories in Corsier-sur-Vevey and Vevey. He died in Corsier on 6 April 1852. His wife Louise-Albertine continued to run the company along with their sons, Auguste and Alexandre.

Legacy

In 1875, his son-in-law

Daniel Peter Daniel Peter (9 March 1836 – 4 November 1919) was a Swiss chocolatier and entrepreneur who founded Peter's Chocolate. A neighbour of Henri Nestlé in Vevey, he was one of the first chocolatiers to make milk chocolate and is credited for inven ...

had the idea of combining the chocolate with his neighbor

Henri Nestlé Henri Nestlé () (born Heinrich Nestle; 10 August 1814 – 7 July 1890) was a German-Swiss confectioner and the founder of Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company. Early life Heinrich Nestle was born on 10 August 1814 in Frankfu ...

's condensed milk to make milk chocolate. The companies of Peter and Charles-Amédée Kohler, which were already partners, merged with Cailler in 1911, then run by François-Louis' grandson, Alexandre-François-Louis Cailler (1866–1936), to form the firm ''Peter, Cailler, Kohler, Chocolats Suisses S.A'', which was later purchased by the food industry giant

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...

, in 1929.

Notes and references

External links

Official website of Cailler

Cailler Profile
- Chocolate Reviews
Maison Cailler - swiss chocolate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cailler, Francois-Louis Swiss businesspeople 1796 births 1852 deaths Swiss chocolatiers Businesspeople in confectionery People from Vevey Swiss industrialists 19th-century Swiss businesspeople Swiss company founders