Henri Nestlé

Henri Nestlé (1814-1890) was the founder of Nestlé and the inventor of baby formula.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, he moved to Vevey in Switzerland in his twenties. In 1857, he decided to set up his own business selling liquid gas.

However, he became interested in producing foodstuffs. In particular, he wanted to develop a nutritious food for babies whose mothers could not breast feed as one in four babies did not survive the first year. In 1867, he developed a food called farine lactee consisting of a mixture of Swiss milk and cereal produced by a process that he invented. In that year, he fed it to a premature baby whose mother could not breastfeed her child; the baby survived and his reputation spread quickly.

In 1868, he opened an office in London and within five years was exporting to Australia and South America. He sold Nestlé for a million francs in 1874 and had no further contact with the company until his death in 1890.