François-Louis Cailler

François-Louis Cailler (11 June 1796 – 6 April 1852) was a Swiss entrepreneur and early chocolatier who founded Cailler, the first modern brand of Swiss chocolate and the oldest still in existence, in 1819.

Biography Cailler was born in Vevey, in the canton of Vaud, on 11 June 1796, in a family originally from Daillens. After an apprenticeship as a grocer in Vevey, he travelled to northern Italy where, in Turin, he learned the art of chocolate-making from Ticinese chocolatiers based there.

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

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. After the company's recover, Cailler bought two new water powered factories in Corsier-sur-Vevey and Vevey. to form the firm Peter, Cailler, Kohler, Chocolats Suisses S.A, which was later purchased by the food industry giant Nestlé, in 1929.

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