Humble beginnings of €20 billion company
Pietro Ferrero |
A baker by profession, he moved to nearby Alba in 1926 with his
wife and young son, Michele, before deciding to try his luck in Turin, where in
1940 he opened a large pastry shop in Via Sant’Anselmo.
Trading conditions were tough, however, and the business was
not a success. The family returned to
Alba in 1942, setting up a smaller bakery in Via Rattazzi, at the back of which
Pietro created a kind of confectionery laboratory.
He had hit upon the idea of trying to find alternative
materials from which to make products, largely because the high
taxes on cocoa beans meant conventional chocolate-based pastries were expensive to make.
Hazelnuts, on the other hand, were plentiful, Piedmont being
one of Italy’s major producers. One of his experiments involved combining Gianduja,
a traditional Piedmontese hazelnut paste, with about 20 per cent chocolate.
Pietro's original Giandujot hazelnut 'chocolate' bars |
Demand for the product increased rapidly, so much so that
producing it by hand became impracticable. Together with his wife, Piera, Pietro founded the company Ferrero on May 14, 1946, built a factory in Alba on
Via Vivaro and began to hire new workers.
Sadly, Pietro died in 1949 at the age of just 50, not realising his company would
grow in quite the way it did.
Sales soared after a creamy, spreadable version of Gianduja was
produced in 1951 under the name Supercrema. This was the forerunner of
Nutella, the chocolate-hazelnut spread invented by Pietro’s son, Michele, who
inherited the business and turned it into one of the world’s biggest brands.
Under Michele’s astute management, the company expanded to
produce a whole range of confectionary products, including Ferrero Rocher
praline chocolates, the Kinder range of eggs and bars, Mon Cheri cherry liqueur
chocolates and the espresso-filled Pocket Coffee chocolates.
Ferrero SpA produces 365,000 tons of Nutella each year |
When he died in 2015, Michele Ferrero was the richest man in
Italy according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index and the 20th
richest person in the world, with a personal fortune of almost €15 billion.
Although it has offices in Luxembourg, Ferrero SpA remains a
private company based in Alba and still, essentially, a family business. Pietro’s grandson, Giovanni – son of Michele –
is the current executive chairman.
The appointment earlier this year as chief executive of Lapo
Civiletti, the company’s former head of operations in central and eastern
Europe, was the first time a non-family member had filled such a high-ranking
position in the company.
Apart from Ferrero, the town of Alba – about 32km (20 miles)
northeast of Farigliano and 60km (37 miles) southeast of Turin – is important for
its production of truffles, peaches and wine.
The wines produced locally include Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, Nebbiolo
and Moscato. The town has a population of almost 32,000 and its historic centre,
built on the site of the Roman city of Alba Pompeia, includes the Romanesque
cathedral of San Lorenzo and the Gothic church of San Domenico.
Via Sant’Anselmo, where Pietro Ferrero ran a pastry shop
before moving to Alba, is one of the streets parallel with Turin railway
station, south of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. The city’s main shopping area is
on the north side of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, around Via Roma, Via Giuseppe
Luigi Lagrange and Via Carlo Alberto. Turin also has 19km (11 miles) of covered
arcades and hosts more than 60 markets, including the largest open market in
Europe at Porta Palazzo in Piazza della Repubblica.
More reading:
Michele Ferrero - the man who invented Nutella
More reading:
Michele Ferrero - the man who invented Nutella
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