When Peter Cailer Kohler (later Nestlé, S.A.) began chocolate production in the United States, Fulton became home to the first U.S. chocolate manufacturing facility. Many Swiss, skilled in the art of making chocolate, followed the company to Fulton and settled here. Many of their descendants still live in the area. However, in 2003, after more than 100 years, citing the high cost of restoring and updating the aging plant, Nestle closed the factory, leaving four hundred local employees jobless. Factory employees hung the Nestlé company flag outside the factory upside down the day the closing was announced by company officials.