At the outset, the Swiss chocolate pioneers had to struggle hard for 
	their subsequent sweet success. When, in the second half of the 18th cen- 
	tury, natives of Yal Blenio in the Tessin popularised chocolate in this 
	country, too, nobody dreamt that, just a few decades later, a handful 
	of Swiss would lay the foundations of the world-wide reputation of our 
	chocolate industry. Neither our geographical position nor the customs 
	and habits of our forefathers argured well for the success of such a 
	venture. However disunited the efforts of the Swiss chcolate pioneers 
	may have been, they were firmly united by a single purpose - to improve 
	the quality of the chocolate. Only in this way could they keep abreast of 
	the large foreign manufacturers who had already made a name for 
	themselves throughout the world. The technical genius nf these pioneers 
	seems to have been almost inexhaustible; their inventive skill showed it- 
	self not only in the development of ever more efficient machinerv, but 
	also in their constantly more refined recipes for the manufacture of 
	chocolate. 

	Many of the names which make our mouths water when we see them as 
	well known trade marks on the boxes of all the best chocolates, recall to 
	our memories the work and the lasting achievements of the pioneers of 
	Swiss Chocolate. From small beginnings, for the most part, they laid the 
	foundation stones of concerns which uphold the reputation of Swiss 
	chocolates right up to the present day.
Francois-Louis Cailler Philippe Suchard Charles-Amédée Kohler Rodolphe Sprungli-ammann Aquilino Maestrani 
	FRANCOIS-LOUIS CAILLER (1796-1852) saw chocolate for the first time
	at a local fair. Italian chocolate makers were stirring the exquisite potion
	which so titillated the nostrils of the young François that he went to
	Italy as a Swiss "immigrant labourer". For four years he worked in the
	Caffarel chocolate factory in Milan. He then returned home as a master
	chocolate maker, and had a press with stone rollers built to his own de-
	sign. In 1819 he opened the first Swiss chocolate factory at Corsier, near
	Vevey.
	At the age of 12, PHILIPPE SUCHARD (1797-1884) was sent to Neuchâtel
	to collect a pound of chocolate from the local apothecary for his ailing
	mother. The tonic preparation cost 6 francs, which, in those days, repr-
	sented a labourer's wages for three days ! In 1815, he was allowed to start
	work as an apprentice confectioner with his elder brother in Berne. In
	1824 he left Switzerland to visit the United States. At the end of the year
	he returned and opened a confectioner's business in Neuchâtel. In 
	Serrieres, he set up a chocolate factory, powered by a water-wheel. With 
	only one assistant, he was producing at that time between 25 and 30 kilo- 
	grams of chocolate a day. In 1880, Philippe Suchard opened the first 
	Swiss foreign branch in Lorrach, Germany. 
	In 1826, JACQUES FOULQUIER (1798-1865) started the production of 
	chocolate by hand in Geneva. His son-in-law, jean-Samuel Favarger, later 
	became his successor. 
	As a wholesale provision merchant, CHARLES-AMEDEE KOHLER (1790- 
	1874) started by buying ready-made chocolate, but finally went over to 
	producing his own in 1830. Like Cailler and Suchard before him, he 
	strove constantly to improve and perfect thc popular types of chocolate. 
	In one of his experiments he succeeded in developing something which 
	was going to be of great benefit to the chocolate industry - hazelnut 
	chocolate. In partnership with his son, he manufactured this new speciality 
	in Lausanne. The Kohler factory became a large operation following its 
	amalgamation with the firm of Daniel Peter. 
	After the founding of the first chocolate factories in French Switzerland,
	1845 saw the establishment of the first factory in the German-speaking
	part of the country. In that year, RODOLPHE SPRÜNGLI-AMMANN (1816-
	1897), using an improved method of manufactrure, produced chocolate
	for the first time in his confectioner's shop in Zurich. In 1899, his son,
	Rodolphe Sprüngli-Schifferli or, more accurately, Chocolat Sprüngli
	A.G., took over the factory of Rodolphe Lindt. The reputation of Lindt
	chocolate was so great that the price paid for the secret recipes, the
	trade-mark rights and the equipment was 1 1/2 million gold francs !
	AQUILINO MAESTRANI (1814-1880), whose father was one of those
	natives of Tessin who emigrated to Lombardy in the middle of the
	18th century to learn "the chocolate trade", and who, himself, gained
	valuable experience in Milan, opened a chocolate factory in Lucerne in
	1852. Soon space became too limited for the constantly expanding factory,
	and Maestrani moved to St. Gallen.
Jacques Klaus Daniel Peter Henri Nestlé Rodolphe Lindt Jean Tobler 
	JACQUES KLAUS (1814-1909), a native of the canton of Zurich, made an 
	extended "journeyman's" tour through Switzerland and France before 
	setting up in business as a confectioner in Le Locle. In 1856 he established 
	a chocolate factory which rapidly achieved a considerable reputation.
	
	The road which led DANIEL PETER (1836 - 1919) to chocolate was any- 
	thing but straight. The son of a butcher, he was employed by a woman 
	in Vevey who owned a grocer's shop and made candles as a sideline. 
	Since his employer, Madame Clement, saw straight away where the 
	boy's real interest lay, she let him take over the candlemaking on his own 
	account. Unfortunately - or rather, fortunately for the chocolate in- 
	dustry - the paraffin lamp became popular just at this time, and 
	from then on the Swiss, like most of us, used candles mainly to decorate 
	their Christmas trees. But Daniel Peter's interest in Vevey was not 
	confined to candles; he also had an eye on Fanny Cailler, the eldest 
	daughter of François-Louis Cailler. And so, almost accidentally, he 
	discovered chocolate. But he didn't let matters rest there. Like a true 
	Swiss, he took milk and combined it with chocolate. 1875 was the proud 
	year of Daniel Peter's invention of milk chocolate. We should be grateful 
	to him; for most of us, chocolate without rnilk wouldn't taste half as 
	nice. 
	HENRI NESTLE (1814 - 1890) was a latecomer to the chocolate industry. 
	His story started with milk. But not the milk we find on the doorstep 
	every morning or buy in the grocer's shop. Henri Nestle had invented 
	the manufacture of children's groats and, in this connection, had per- 
	fected the making of condensed milk, without which Daniel Peter could 
	not have industrialized his milk chocolate. The Nestle and Peter com- 
	panies worked so closely, following the death of the two founders, that 
	in 1905 Messrs. Peter, who had meantime joined forces with Kohler, 
	produced, to cater for the French taste, a very sweet chocolate devel- 
	oped by the Nestle company. 
	
	In 1874 JOHANN GEORG MUNZ set up a confectionery works in Flawil. 
	Some time later, Albert Munz also began to manufacture chocolate. 
	Below the cathedral in Berne, RODOLPHE LINDT (1855 1909) opened a 
	chocolate factory powered by a water-wheel. A born manufacturer, his 
	genius for invention led him to a new process by which he produced the 
	first melting, or fondant, chocolate. The refining effect, which we know 
	today as "conching", was first noticed by Rodolphe Lindt while pro- 
	cessing chocolate over several days in a narrow mixing trough. He in- 
	corporated this into his production methods and, at the same time, devel- 
	oped equipment on principles still in use today. The addition of cocoa 
	butter to the chocolate, to give it the necessary melting quality, was an- 
	other epoch-making discovery of this man from Berne. These discov- 
	eries and the invention of milk chocolate by Daniel Peter were 
	essential to the manufacture and success of the fine Swiss chocolate we 
	know today. 
	
	In 1893 CHARLES MšLLER and KARL. BERNHARDT founded the first, and 
	to this day the only chocolate factory in the canton of Grison. As a 
	result, it traded under the name "Grison". It changed hands in 1961 and 
	then carried on under the name of Lindt & Spr?ngli. 
	In the L„nggasse area of Berne, JEAN TOBLER (1830-1905), a native of 
	Appenzell, had conducted his "Confiserie sp‚ciale" since 1868. He had 
	learned the confectionery trade in St. Gallen and in Paris. On opening 
	his shop in Berne, he sold mainly specialities which he rnade himself, us- 
	ing chocolate coatings supplied by various manufacturers. Very soon he 
	was selling so much chocolate that he thought that he should make it 
	himself. And so he was forced by circumstances to become a chocolate 
	manufacturer. In the year 1899, he and his sons founded the "Fabrique 
	de Chocolat de Berne, Tobler & Cie.". Today, this firm belongs - to- 
	gether with Suchard - to the Jacobs Suchard Tobler company. 
	In the twentieth century, the Swiss chocolate industry has proved its un- 
	broken ability for pioneer performances as well. Further companies 
	were founded and have helped to build up the image of the Swiss cho- 
	colate's high standing all over the world by their successful activity over 
	many decades and as members of Chocosuisse: 
	
	1902 NAGO AG, Olten (1971 merger with Lindt & Spr?ngli) 
	1908 MAX FELCHLIN AG, Schwyz 
	1928 STELLA SA, Lugano 
	1929 CAMILLE BLOCH SA, Courtelary 
	1931 CARMA AG, D?bendorf 
	1933 BERNRAIN AG, Kreuzlingen 
	
	Innovations, continuous investments in their plants and efforts in re- 
	search and development will ensure the Swiss chocolate manufacturers 
	to remain up-to-date. "Only the best quality is good enough" is the 
	maxim, today as ever!