Nutella owner Michele Ferrero dies at 89
Date February 15, 2015 - 2:20PM
Michele Ferrero's fortune was built on sales of Nutella, a chocolate and hazelnut spread that has long been marketed as part of a healthy and active lifestyle. Photo: Reuters
Rome: Billionaire Michele Ferrero, who became Italy's richest man with a confectionery empire built on his popular Nutella spread, has died at the age of 89.
It was Ferrero's father, a smalltime pastry maker named Pietro Ferrero, who laid the groundwork for the recipe and famously added hazelnut to it to save money on chocolate. But it was Michele Ferrero who turned the paste into the Nutella now known the world over.
The first pot of the addictive mix was made in Alba in north-west Italy in April 1964. Ferrero now produces around 365,000 tonnes of Nutella every year in 11 factories around the world. The biggest market is Germany, followed by France and Italy.
Another of Ferrero's products, Ferrero Rocher, is associated with luxury, with one famous advert showing them being handed out to "spoiled" guests at an embassy function.
The Ferrero group also makes Ferrero Rocher, Mon Cheri and Kinder chocolates and employs more than 22,000 workers.
The group has an annual turnover of more than €8 billion ($11.61 billion).
Ferrero and his family were estimated by Forbes to hold Italy's biggest fortune at $US20.4 billion ($26.32 billion) in 2013.
Ferrero's son Giovanni became chief executive of the Ferrero group after his older brother Pietro died of a suspected heart attack while cycling in South Africa in 2011.
AFP
