A string of missteps led to images of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to be placed on the top of coffee cream packages in Switzerland, forcing a major retailer to apologize on Wednesday for the embarrassing incident, according to AFP.

The small, plastic pots of cream had been given out to customers at some hundred restaurants and cafes among business clients of Migros, Switzerland's largest retail company and supermarket chain, AFP reported.

Many Swiss collect labels from mini cream pots, which enjoy cult status in the mountainous nation, according to AFP.

Migros announced it "offered its excuses for this unforgivable incident" and that it was taking care of removing the packages from all places to where they had been delivered.

The company explained, according to AFP, that Karo, a firm specializing in cream pots, had developed the designs for the labels as part of a series based on vintage cigar brands for milk company ELSA, the Migros subsidiary responsible for supplying the cream. Two of the pre-World War II era cigar brands showed the faces of Hitler, as well as Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Migros described ELSA's internal control procedures as "insufficient," AFP reported.

