Menier turned chocolate into an industry. His father, a pharmacist, used it to coat medicinal powders; he himself took over the business in 1853 and added plantations in Nicaragua, a fleet, a sugar refinery. At Noisiel, the mill he commissioned from Jules Saulnier shows on its façade its iron frame filled with brick: it is the first building in the world with an exposed metal skeleton.
The story
Émile-Justin Menier, a chocolate maker, took over his father's business in 1853. Antoine Brutus Menier was a pharmacist who coated medicinal powders in chocolate, and in his hands the chocolate had ended up outgrowing the remedy. His son set out to build a complete industry: plantations in Nicaragua, a fleet, a sugar refinery, a factory.
At Noisiel, on the Marne, he commissioned the architect Jules Saulnier to raise a mill on the piers of an older structure. Completed in 1872, the building shows its iron frame on the outside, filled in with polychrome brick: it is the first building in the world with an exposed metal frame, and a landmark in the history of architecture. The factory became the leading chocolate works in the world.
Around it Menier built a workers' town of one hundred and thirty-eight houses — three hundred and twelve dwellings — with schools, a company store, a village hall and pensions. The paternalism was complete, but the conditions were unmatched in the French industry of his day.
Elected deputy for Seine-et-Marne, he argued a case that sat oddly with a factory owner: tax should fall on capital, not on labour. He died at Noisiel in 1881, aged fifty-four. His sons Henri, Gaston and Albert succeeded him; the family lost control of the firm in 1959.
On site, do not miss
A family vault of an industrial dynasty, in a Division that mingles musicians, painters and politicians.
Visitors' questions
Where is Émile-Justin Menier's grave?
In Division 67 of Père-Lachaise, on the eastern slope of the cemetery. The composer Édouard Lalo, the painter Paul Signac and the politician Louis Blanc all three rest in the same Division, a few steps from one another.
Paul Signac, Division 67Who founded the Menier chocolate works?
Antoine Brutus Menier, a pharmacist, who coated his medicinal powders in chocolate. His son Émile-Justin took over in 1853 and built a complete industry, from the plantation to the finished bar, until it became the largest chocolate works in the world.
Félix PotinCan you visit the Menier factory at Noisiel?
The site is a listed monument, houses the French headquarters of Nestlé and opens on organised visiting days. Jules Saulnier's mill, finished in 1872, is still the draw: its exposed iron frame makes it an architectural manifesto.
Louis Blanc, Division 67Was Menier a socially minded employer?
In his own way — paternalist, but real: a workers' town, schools, a company store and a pension fund for his employees at Noisiel. As a member of parliament he argued for taxing capital rather than labour, a rare position for an industrialist of the Second Empire.
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