L'histoire de Peugeot

The adventure began 210 years ago when the Peugeot brothers inherited a mill from their millworker ancestors, which they subsequently transformed into a steel foundry, thereby breathing life into the Peugeot family’s industrial calling. Drawing strength from its abundance of ingenuity, the company began making such items as steel tapes and saws in 1810 before progressing to tools, safety ladders and ultimately coffee mills in 1840 and the first pepper mill in 1874. The Peugeot lion was designed with their famous grinding teeth in mind. 

And so the status quo would have remained had it not been for the advent of the motor car around the turn of the 20th century,. Armand Peugeot was a fan. His cousin Eugène was not. So the company was divided into two. Under the terms of the separation, Eugène's company, Les Fils de Peugeot Frères, was banned from making cars and Armand's half, La Société des Automobiles Peugeot, was forbidden from making tools, two-wheeled vehicles, tricycles and quadricycles with a saddle.