The outdoor Cailler chocolate game
A pioneer in the fields
Fifth stop: The local school
Alexandre Cailler:
You must think l’m exaggerating, my dear Decoppet! But this building in front of us now is my pride and joy. Of course, there were the factory, the dams, the workers’ houses and the railway. Achievement I’m really proud of. But the school! Being able to guarantee the children of the village a good education, that’s what is most important. You see, in 10 years the factory has grown significantly. And the population of Broc has quadrupled during this time! There are now 1800 people living in the village, and the majority of them work in the factory...
Did you know that I have been a municipal councilor here in Broc since 1908? And that one of the first things I did was to convince my colleagues to build this magnificent school. We inaugurated it in 1910. It has room for all the children in the village.
Having a good education: that’s what will help children to create a future !
Narrator:
It’s true that on the subject of education, Alexandre Cailler knows what he’s talking about. As soon as he finished his commercial studies in Lausanne, he left to do a banking apprenticeship in Basel where he had the opportunity to learn German. He then went to Turin in Italy to work in a chocolate factory, just like his grandfather, François-Louis Cailler, the founder of the family business. There he learned the art of chocolate making. And with his young fellow workers, he learned to speak Italian.
So, by the time he returned to Vevey at the age of 22 to take charge of the family business, he had mastered not only the skills and techniques of a chocolatier, but also the principles of commerce, and he spoke the main languages of Switzerland. So from a very early age he was well equipped to develop the business.
