Lombart Chocolate (French: Chocolat Lombart) or Chocolaterie Lombart, was a French chocolate manufacturer. It claimed to be the oldest such company in France, and at its peak was the largest. The company was innovative in providing insurance and a profit-sharing plan to its workers. In the late 1930s it went into decline, and in 1957 was absorbed by Menier Chocolate.
Lombart claimed to be the first chocolate company in France.[1] Experiments in France with pressing out cocoa butter date back to at least 1760.[1] One of the labels of the "Lombart" brand of chocolates dates its use from 1760.[2] This was ten years before Pelletier et Pelletier founded a chocolate factory in 1770.[1] The illustrious clients included Madame Victoire, and then Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême, also known as Madame Royale. The company produced superior chocolates, fine sweets, chocolate fantasies and Lombart tea.[3] An old box from the Maison Chocolat Lombart is decorated with two medallions recording patents granted by King Louis XVI and later by the Duchess of Angoulême in 1814. The wooden box closed with an iron hook and was lined with fabric. The label shows that the box held chocolate tablets containing nougat cream and priced at 5 centimes per tablet.[4]
19th century
Jules-François Lombart was born in Paris on 24 February 1830. His parents were from Doullens, Somme..[5] Lombart became proprietor around 1870. He received the Cross of the Legion of Honour on 23 July 1881 after the Melbourne International Exhibition (1880), where the company had a large display.[6] Lombart introduced various improvements in the manufacturing process, gradually increasing daily output to 10,000 kilograms (22,000lb) of chocolate. The factory was moved from 3 Rue des Vieille-Étuves-Saint-Honoré to the Rue Jean-de-Deauvais, then to the Rue Keller in the 11th arrondissement, and finally to 75 Avenue de Choisy.[5] In 1860 the factory and offices were located at 75 avenue de Choisy, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, and were to remain there until the 1940s.[3]
The Chocolaterie Lombart had an exhibit in the Palace of Machines in the Exposition Universelle (1889).[7] In 1889 the Lombart factory was described as a model establishment, the first, the most powerful and the most remarkable of such factories in Paris. It covered 20,000 metres (66,000ft) and employed over 500 people. The sales office was at 11 Boulevard des Italiens.[5] Lombart established an insurance plan for the workers to cover workplace accidents, including a daily allowance during sickness, medical attention and help with funeral expenses. He also built houses for the workers.[8]
Chocolaterie Lombart wrapping and packing factory around 1889
Lombart instituted a plan by which the workers were given a share of the annual profits.[8] The annual bonus, which in the 1880s varied from 60,000 to 100,000 francs in total, was divided among the workers and staff based on seniority, salary and merit.[9] The owner and two senior managers determined merit, grading performance as "very good", "good", "quite good", "acceptable" and "poor". The bonus was calculated for each of the three evaluations and then averaged. Each worker's bonus took the form of shares in a retirement fund, which paid the worker a pension after 30 years.[10] Young girls were given a portion of their shares at the time of the marriage. The workers were encouraged to save through a monthly payment of 2 francs invested in a fund called l'Abeille.[11]
20th century
The Chocolaterie Lombart, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was "the biggest factory in Paris", and also had an establishment in Ivry.[12] The company packaged colored cards with its chocolate. Around 1900 it published a series of images of the future world titled "This is how our great-grandchildren will live in the year 2012". The series gave an optimistic view, including one of modern aviation replacing the Zeppelin.[13] One card showed a couple speaking over the telephone to friends in India, with a camera obscura image of their friends projected on the wall.[14] Another showed a brightly-lit passenger submarine.[15] The company also distributed paper models of people such as a policeman or jockey with a toothpick as an axle. When assembled and twirled around, the toys would perform acrobatics.[16]
The factory was managed dynamically, and at its peak employed almost 800 workers. It went into rapid decline after the strikes of 1936. In the late 1940s the headquarters and offices were located at 68 rue de Mirosmesnil in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.[3] In 1957 Menier Chocolate absorbed the company.[3]
The factory at 75 avenue de Choisy is now the site of the lycée Gabriel Fauré.[3] The greater part of the collection of the Musée Lombart in Doullens comes from the legacy that Jules François Lombart (1830-1915) gave to the town in 1908.[17][a] The factory at 75 avenue de Choisy was described by the novelist Anne-Marie Garat in her novel Dans la main du diable.
Notes
↑ Jules-François Lombart was son of Catherine Legris and Adolphe Lombart. He was a great traveller, searching for the best strains of cacao. He lived in his villa Boucicaut in Fontenay-aux-Roses, where he was mayor.[18]
The 15th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as le quinzième.
The 13th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris. In spoken French, the arrondissement is referred to as le treizième.
François-Louis Cailler 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.
The Menier Chocolate company is a French chocolate manufacturing business founded in 1816 as a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Paris, at a time when chocolate was used as a medicinal product and was only one part of the overall business.
Swiss chocolate is chocolate produced in Switzerland. Switzerland's chocolates have earned an international reputation for high quality with many famous international chocolate brands.
Cailler is a Swiss chocolate brand and production factory based in Broc. It was founded in Vevey by François-Louis Cailler in 1819 and remained independent until the early 20th century, when it associated with other producers. Shortly before, Cailler opened its main factory at Broc in 1898. The company was finally bought by Nestlé in 1929 and became a brand. Cailler is the oldest chocolate brand still in existence in Switzerland.
Debauve & Gallais is a French chocolate manufacturer founded by Sulpice Debauve in 1800. After his nephew Antoine Gallais joined the company in 1823, the company adopted their current name. In 1819 the company received the royal warrant as purveyors to the French court, and was the official chocolate supplier for Emperor Napoleon and of kings Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe.
Moynat is a Parisian trunkmaker, founded in Paris in 1849 by Octavie and François Coulembier. They collaborated with specialist Pauline Moynat in travel goods to open the company's first store at Avenue de l'Opera, France. The house participated in various World's Fairs.
Edmond Jean-Baptiste Paulin was a French architect. As a young man, he became known for his reconstruction of the Baths of Diocletian. Later he taught at the National School of Fine Arts, and designed pavilions for two world expositions.
The Passage Jouffroy is one of the covered passages of Paris, located in the 9th arrondissement. It runs between the Boulevard Montmartre to the south and the Rue de la Grange-Batelière to the north.
Émile-Jules Dubois was a French medical doctor and politician who was a deputy in the National Assembly from 1898 to 1904.
Frantz Jourdain was a Belgian architect and author. He is best known for La Samaritaine, an Art Nouveau department store built in the 1st arrondissement of Paris in three stages between 1904 and 1928. He was respected as an authority on Art Nouveau.
Paris in the Belle Époque was a period in the history of the city during the years 1871 to 1914, from the beginning of the Third French Republic until the First World War. It saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower, the Paris Métro, the completion of the Paris Opera, and the beginning of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur on Montmartre. Three lavish "universal expositions" in 1878, 1889, and 1900 brought millions of visitors to Paris to sample the latest innovations in commerce, art, and technology. Paris was the scene of the first public projection of a motion picture, and the birthplace of the Ballets Russes, Impressionism, and Modern Art.
Gustave Louis Jaulmes was an eclectic French artist who followed the neoclassical trend in the Art Deco movement. He created monumental frescoes, paintings, posters, illustrations, cartoons for tapestries and carpets and decorations for objects such as enamels, sets of plates and furniture.
Pierre Bardou-Job was a French industrialist, manufacturer of JOB cigarette papers, and art collector.
Chocolat Jacques is a Belgian firm that was founded in Verviers in 1896, by Antoine Jacques (1858-1929). Production was later moved to Bruges and Eupen in the east of Belgium, where its headquarters have also been located since 1923.
Jules Gallay was a French lawyer and music historian.
Chocolat Kohler was a chocolate producer based in Lausanne, founded in 1830 by the Kohler brothers. It is currently a brand owned by Nestlé.
A melanger is a stone-grinder that is used in chocolate-making. It typically consists of two granite wheels, which rotate inside a metal drum on top of a granite base. Given enough time the wheels can reduce the particles to sizes measured in microns, therefore making a smooth chocolate paste from cocoa beans.
The Trocadéro Palace was an eclectic building of Moorish and neo-Byzantine inspiration dating from the second half of the 19th century. Located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, on the Convent of the Visitandines de Chaillot between the Place du Trocadéro and the gardens of the same name, it comprised a 4,600-seat auditorium extended on either side by two curved wings, each housing a museum, as well as conference rooms.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
