In 1851, the company was founded in the Alsace region of France by Léopold Dreyfus, the 18-year-old Alsatian Ashkenazi Jewish son of a farmer from Sierentz, under the name of his father, Louis Dreyfus. Léopold purchased wheat from local farmers in Alsace and transported it to Basel in Switzerland,  away.
In 1851, the company was founded in the Alsace region of France by Léopold Dreyfus, the 18-year-old Alsatian Ashkenazi Jewish son of a farmer from Sierentz, under the name of his father, Louis Dreyfus. Léopold purchased wheat from local farmers in Alsace and transported it to Basel in Switzerland,  away.