He expanded it into chocolate and grew the company into Europe's biggest chocolate and coffee seller, acquiring Swiss firms Tobler and Suchard (makers of the world-famous triangular Toblerone chocolate bar) along the way. He sold the combined company, Jacobs Suchard, to American conglomerate Philip Morris (now Altria) in 1990 for 3.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion at the time). In 1996, he merged the Swiss company Adia Personnel Services with French firm Ecco to form Adecco, and in the same year fused his Belgian chocolate maker, Callebaut, with French rival Cacao Barry. As late as 2005, he became embroiled in a power struggle with Ecco's French entrepreneur Philippe Foriel-Destezet, emerging as chief executive and chairman of Adecco.