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In 1895 a group of entrepreneurs
from Delémont bought out Boechat and built a new
plant at Courtetelle. About two years later Theodore Wenger
was hired to be its General Manager. The son of a pastor,
Theodore Wenger was a minister who had served in the USA.
He decided this calling was not for him, so he returned
to Switzerland. There he learned the world of business
in his father-in-law's cloth trade. After a few years
he applied for a job at Courtetelle.
One of Wenger's first acts was to acquire a manufacturer
of spoons and forks which he moved to a rented factory
in Delémont. Then in 1900 he built a new 18,000
square foot facility there. Both the utensil operations
and the Courtetelle cutlery production were incorporated
into the new plant now called Fabrique Suisse de Courtetellerie
at Services. A few years later Wenger acquired Fabrique
Suisse, renamed it Wenger et Cie. and shepherded its growth
for the next forty years.
The Compromise of 1908
The company from which Wenger emerged had been a supplier
to the Swiss Army as early as 1893, and its competitor,
Victorinox, since 1890. Wenger is in the French-speaking
Jura region, and its competitor is in the German-speaking
canton of Schwyz. To avoid friction between the two cantons,
the Swiss government decided in 1908 to use each supplier
for half of its requirements. |
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