Henri Nestle

Henri Nestlé, until 1839 Heinrich Nestle (Frankfurt am Main, August 10, 1814—Montreux, July 7, 1890), was a Swiss apothecary and businessman born in Germany, founder of the Nestlé company, the largest food and beverage company in the world, as well as one of the creators of condensed milk.

Early Years

He was the eleventh of fourteen siblings of the marriage formed by Johann Ulrich Matthias Nestle and Anna-Maria Catharina Ehemann, a Jewish couple. The Nestle family has its origins in southern Swabia (Germany), predominantly in the Black Forest and Dornstetten, Freudenstadt, Mindersbach, Nagold and Sulz am Neckar. In the Swabian dialect "Nestle" means 'little bird's nest' - the surname Nestle exists in different variants, such as Nästlen, Nästlin, Nestlen, Nestlin and Niestlo.

The grandfather had moved from Sulzbach to Frankfurt, and Nestle's father inherited the family glassware business on Töngesgasse, where he also sold window glass and English china. He was also a local agent for a Parisian general insurance company. The mayor of Frankfurt, Gustav Edmund Nestle, was his brother. He grew up in a Lutheran family, being educated in the line of duty.

Career

After school he became an apothecary, a profession for which no studies were required then, but knowledge of chemistry was required long before this subject was taught in German universities, and the apprenticeship was probably completed around 1833. Later years Later, he appears in Lausanne (Switzerland), where at the end of 1839 he passes the exam for assistant apothecary.^{[citation needed]} It could be that he had political reasons for emigrating to Lake Geneva. Like his family, as an apprentice he had contacts with the main liberal personalities of Frankfurt, who already in 1833 tried to make a revolution against the restoration of Metternich and someone recommended that he go to Switzerland, a liberal country.^{[ citation required]}

In Vevey, he soon changes his name to Henri Nestlé, in order to better adapt to his French-speaking environment. In 1843, he bought an industrial building for 19,000 francs with money lent to him by an aunt, where he began to manufacture rapeseed and walnut oil, powdered bones, vinegar, brandy and powdered mustard. He orders the installation of a water pipe to produce mineral water. Already in 1845, he titled himself as "merchant"; and & # 34; chemist & # 34;, and four years later he sets up a chemical laboratory in a separate building. He develops a liquid gas that is used to illuminate twelve public lampposts in Vevey, as was done then in many other Swiss cities, but it is not a good business, because the municipality decides to build its own gas factory.^{[quote required]}

He married Anna Clémentine Thérèse Ehmant on May 23, 1860.^{[citation needed]}

In 1867, Nestlé developed a compound called farine lactée, a mixture of vacuum-condensed cow's milk with sugar until it had the density of honey. He mixed the wheat flour with the concentrated milk and let it dry, adding potassium bicarbonate afterwards. The merit of Nestlé consists in having used procedures already discovered, such as those of the German chemist Justus von Liebig, the French chemist J. A. Barral and the knowledge of the English physicist Isaac Newton on condensation. Baby flour was a revolution, since it solved the problem of supplying fresh milk for babies and young children, as well as the elderly and sick in the cities, and was decisive in combating infant mortality, which had increased so much with industrialization. One of his successes was to remove the acid and starch from this mixture. Nestlé became famous when his preparation saved the life of a premature baby, whose mother was seriously ill after giving birth. She brought him home, fed him her own produce, and the newborn recovered quickly. Soon after, he founded a new company and ordered the machines he needed for manufacturing. Within a year, he was able to produce 360,000 cans of the product a year, and after three years he had to expand.^{[citation needed]}

Hedge of Henri Nestlé and first logo of his company, in 1867.

The company Nestlé, S.A. was born thanks to Henri Nestlé, who adopted his own family crest and surname Nestlé ("little nest"). In this way, his last name became the brand and logo of his baby food. ^{[citation needed ]}

In 1868 he opened an office in London and within five years he was exporting his product to Australia and South America. In 1874 he sold the company to Jules Monnerat for one million francs and had no further contact with it until his death on July 7, 1890. ^{[citation needed ]}

Nestlé is the world's largest food and beverage company. It features more than 2,000 brands ranging from global icons to local favorites; children's flour is now sold in 191 countries around the globe, the company employs more than 300,000 people, and sales are estimated at more than 100 billion francs a year.^{[citation needed]}