Antoine Brutus Menier, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
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French entrepreneur and founder of the Menier family of chocolatiers
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Bourgueil, Centre-Val de Loire, France
About Antoine Brutus Menier
- Jean-Antoine Brutus Menier (May 17, 1795 – December 19, 1853) was a French entrepreneur and founder of the Menier family of chocolatiers.
- Born in Germain-de-Bourgeuil, Indre-et-Loire, he was the third child in a family of merchants.
- In 1811 Antoine Brutus Menier was enrolled in the La Flèche Military Academy where he studied the composition of pharmaceuticals.
- The following year the 17-year-old served with the medical staff of La Grande Armée in Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
- In 1813 he was employed at Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris. In 1816, Antoine Brutus Menier married Marie-Edmée Virginie Pichon.
- With her sizeable dowry he was able to go into business and he established the Menier Hardware Company in the Marais district of Paris.
- Although not certified as a pharmacist, Menier began preparing and selling a variety of powders for medicinal purposes.
- This aspect of the business grew rapidly and in 1825 he began an expansion through the acquisition of a second production facility on land on the banks of the Marne River at Noisiel, then a small village of less than 200 inhabitants at the outskirts of Paris. Chocolate was used as a medicinal product and was only one part of the overall business.
- Success led to a modernization of the Noisel facility in 1830 that made it the first factory in France to have a mechanized mass production process for chocolate.
- By 1832 Menier's company offered a wide range of medicinal powders and began publishing a catalog detailing its product line.
- Following the development of solid chocolate, Menier introduced a block of chocolate wrapped in decorative yellow paper. Antoine Brutus Menier's success earned him considerable recognition throughout France but soon brought with it criticism for his lack of certification as a pharmacist.
- However, his skills were such that in 1839 he passed the necessary exams and received his diploma.
- For his contribution to the growth of the economy of France, in 1842 the government awarded him the Legion of Honor. In the spring of 1853 Antoine Brutus Menier suffered a stroke that left him paralysed and management of the business was assumed by his son Emile-Justin Menier in a year that saw the company produce more than 4,000 tons of chocolate.
- Antoine Brutus Menier died in December at his home in Passy.
- He was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Read more at Wikipedia
See Also
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