Nestlé was founded in 1866.
In the 1860s Henri Nestlé, a pharmacist, developed a food for babies who were unable to be breastfed. His first success was a premature infant who could not tolerate his own mother’s milk nor any of the usual substitutes. The value of the new product was quickly recognized when his new formula saved the child’s life, and soon, Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé was being sold in much of Europe.
In 1905 Nestlé merged with the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. By the early 1900s, the company was operating factories in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Spain. World War I created new demand for dairy products in the form of government contracts. By the end of the war, Nestlé’s production had more than doubled.
The first Nestlé factory to begin production in the United States was opened in Fulton, Oswego County, New York. The factory however was closed in 2001, after the company decided that the cost of restoring, and updating the factory was not worth the effort. Employees of the factory were furious, and raised the company flag upside down the day the closing was announced.
