Pietro Ferrero
His grandfather, also Pietro, started the company in 1942, supplying products for a small coffee bar and pastry shop run by his wife, Piera, in the Piedmontese town of Alba, northern Italy. Because it was hard to obtain cocoa during the war he decided to exploit locally-abundant hazelnuts and invented a sweet butter-like paste that combined the nuts with cocoa butter and vegetable oil. He called it Pasta Gianduja.
The recipe for the new paste remained a secret, but it proved so popular that the family was soon supplying confectionery shops throughout the region. The pastry shop soon transformed into a sweet factory.
In 1949 Pietro died, leaving his company in the hands of his son, Michele, who expanded into foreign markets, opening subsidiaries and factories across Europe. The company shunned acquisitions, and instead developed new markets by introducing new products suited to local tastes. Pasta Gianduja was renamed Nutella in 1964, but was initially marketed in France as La Tartinoise. In North America, meanwhile, Ferrero eluded stiff competition from peanut-butter manufacturers by carving out a niche with Tic Tac breath-freshener mints.
In 1982 the company launched Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates — in Britain with the much-parodied television advertisements featuring an ambassador’s reception and the line: “Monsieur, with these Rocher you’re really spoiling us.”
Kinder Surprise, hollow chocolate eggs containing toy figurines, were introduced in Europe in 1989. The strategy made Michele Ferraro the richest man in Italy.
His eldest son, Pietro, was born in Turin on September 11 1963 and began working for Ferrero Germany in 1985 after studying Biology at Turin University. He then moved to company headquarters in Alba, and in 1992 took on the responsibility of managing operations in the European division of the Ferrero group. In the late 1990s he and his brother Giovanni took over from their father as joint-chief executives, though it was Pietro who was regarded as the company’s leading manager.
There was some speculation that the generational shift might lead to some moderation of the company’s reputation for excessive secrecy. Under Michele’s leadership Ferrero was a fully-paid up member of Italy’s “salotto buono” — the nexus of backroom dealmakers whose cross-holdings in each other’s companies for years managed to keep foreigners out of Italy. Pietro, for example, was a former director of Ifil SpA, a holding company for the Agnellis, founding family of Fiat. He also served as a director of Mediobanca, Italy’s biggest publicly traded investment bank.
In recent years recession in western Europe, which accounted for 74 per cent of sales in 2009, exposed the company’s bias towards core markets and there were suggestions in the financial press that Ferraro’s lack of size might make it hard for the company to maintain its competitive edge. In 2009, facing pressure to expand, Pietro was rumoured to have challenged his father’s acquisition-averse approach by pushing the company to bid for the British chocolate maker Cadbury.
Pietro eventually dropped the idea, apparently reluctant to open up Ferrero to the inevitable market scrutiny that a cross-border takeover would involve. More recently, the family was said to be considering joining a consortium of Italian companies, backed by the government, to take over the Italian dairy giant Parmalat, in order to forestall its takeover by the French company Groupe Lactalis.
Pietro Ferrero died in South Africa, where his company runs several charitable projects. A keen cyclist, he was riding the spectacular coastal road south of Cape Town when he collapsed. He is survived by his wife, Luisa, and their daughter and two sons.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8461613/Pietro-Ferrero.html
His eldest son, Pietro, was born in Turin on September 11 1963 and began working for Ferrero Germany in 1985 after studying Biology at Turin University. He then moved to company headquarters in Alba, and in 1992 took on the responsibility of managing operations in the European division of the Ferrero group. In the late 1990s he and his brother Giovanni took over from their father as joint-chief executives, though it was Pietro who was regarded as the company’s leading manager.
There was some speculation that the generational shift might lead to some moderation of the company’s reputation for excessive secrecy. Under Michele’s leadership Ferrero was a fully-paid up member of Italy’s “salotto buono” — the nexus of backroom dealmakers whose cross-holdings in each other’s companies for years managed to keep foreigners out of Italy. Pietro, for example, was a former director of Ifil SpA, a holding company for the Agnellis, founding family of Fiat. He also served as a director of Mediobanca, Italy’s biggest publicly traded investment bank.
In recent years recession in western Europe, which accounted for 74 per cent of sales in 2009, exposed the company’s bias towards core markets and there were suggestions in the financial press that Ferraro’s lack of size might make it hard for the company to maintain its competitive edge. In 2009, facing pressure to expand, Pietro was rumoured to have challenged his father’s acquisition-averse approach by pushing the company to bid for the British chocolate maker Cadbury.
Pietro eventually dropped the idea, apparently reluctant to open up Ferrero to the inevitable market scrutiny that a cross-border takeover would involve. More recently, the family was said to be considering joining a consortium of Italian companies, backed by the government, to take over the Italian dairy giant Parmalat, in order to forestall its takeover by the French company Groupe Lactalis.
Pietro Ferrero died in South Africa, where his company runs several charitable projects. A keen cyclist, he was riding the spectacular coastal road south of Cape Town when he collapsed. He is survived by his wife, Luisa, and their daughter and two sons.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8461613/Pietro-Ferrero.html
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