The story of Nestlé, the maker of Butterfinger candy bars and Purina pet food, starts with the coming together of bitter rivals in the late 1800s in Switzerland.
In 1867, a German-born pharmacist, Henri Nestlé, began a milk-food production company in the small town of Vevey. His first product, an infant cereal for mothers who couldn’t breast-feed, combined cow’s milk, wheat flour and sugar. It was a quick success. Almost a decade later, he sold the company for one million Swiss francs.
Around the time, that Nestlé began his company, a competing dairy concern began operation. The competitor, the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk
