there are dozens of products and industries there are a goldmine for the people that helm them often we think of powerful industries we think of the people who sell diamonds or luxury clothing gold oil and cars the superpowers of the world that we see on red carpets often run tech businesses or real-estate empires but what if I told you one of the wealthiest people on earth earned his fortune from a different kind of industry chocolate today we're going to take a look at the chocolate Empire of Giovanni Ferrero and his family we'll see exactly how the business was formed how they've managed to rise to the top and how their number one product Nutella skyrocketed them to success Giovanni Ferrero is the chairman of Ferrero group with a net worth of 32 billion dollars he is the richest person in Italy and in the top 50 of the richest people on earth in 2019 alone he made a whopping nine point six three billion dollars his company Ferrero group sold eleven point nine billion dollars worth of sweets in 2018 alone they employ 40,000 people around the globe and their products are sold in 160 countries sent obviously it hasn't always been that way Ferrero group got its humble beginnings way back in the 1920s at the time Pietro Ferrero Giovanni's grandfather was travelling around Italy looking for work he often worked in pastry shops and chocolate ears throughout the country trying to improve his skills and support his young family at the time Italy wasn't exactly a great place to be under the power of fascists many people's struggles in 1938 Pietro decided to give his hand at selling biscuits and other pastries to Italian troops stationed in Africa he moved the family to East Africa but after a few months he was forced to return back home to Italy he settled in Alba a tiny village in the Hills unfortunately at this point Italy was even worse off than when he had laughed World War two had rattled the country and chocolate was a luxury that wasn't available and most people couldn't afford desperate for a way to make em sell sweet spero created a mixture of molasses hazelnut oil coconut butter and a dash of cocoa the precursor to nutella the product was called Giardia which was a twist on Jian dr a hazelnut paste that was invented in italy way back in the 1800's for a similar reason a blockade imposed by Napoleon put a strain on cocoa supplies so local chocolatiers had to find alternatives Pietro sold his Jian Bao in wax paper on the streets to locals very quickly the product gained a cult-like following production went into overdrive and Pietro could hardly make it fast enough for the customers at night Pietro would often hop out of bed and rush over to his factory to check the samples of the products he'd come home and make his wife try them all hours of the night excited to get the product just right and fortunately he did in 1946 Pietro paired with his business minded brother to form Ferrero Gian do was selling with popularity around Italy and everything was looking up unfortunately Pietro passed away in 1949 leaving the business to his young son Michele who became Giovanni's father when Michele took control of the company it was a challenging time period for Italy 1950s Italy was painfully poor struggling in the aftermath of losing World War two and desperately trying to repair the country at the time Gian do was sold in solid blocks and people couldn't afford to use what little cash they had to buy a bar of chocolate so Michelle came up with a solution he transformed Gian do into a spreadable paste and placed it in reusable jars by selling the chocolate and a hazelnut concoction and reusable jars he gave poor customers more incentive to buy his product as opposed to others and luckily this worked he renamed the concoction super crema which was just one step away from becoming the Nutella and we all know and love today in the 1950s Michele also expanded Ferrero group into Germany still freshly recovering from the war doing business in the country was a fairly easy transition so much so that the Ferrero factories were created in converted Nazi missile factories this expansion made a huge impact on the company allowing them to further expand into Belgium and Austria at this point in the mid-1960s Italy had started to slowly emerge from the destruction of World War two since the residents had more money to play with Michele decided to improve the recipe and quality of his super crema by adding more cocoa and cocoa butter and thus Nutella was finally made in 1964 this sweet treat was finally on the market by the 1970s falero was turning a huge profit and was one of the most wealthy businesses in Italy unfortunately that was a good thing and a bad thing at the time high-profile people were being taken for ransom Michele feared for the safety of his sons Giovanni and Pietro jr. he shipped them off to boarding school in Brussels which had the added advantage of making the young boys comfortable working in other countries which would be useful as Ferrero group expanded more and more after earning his education in Brussels Giovanni traveled to Pennsylvania in the United States to get his college degree in marketing at 11:00 on Valley College once he got his education and travelled the world Giovanni returned home and got his first job within his family's company taking over the operations for the tic-tac brand in Belgium at the time Ferrero was in control of Ferrero Rocher kinder chocolate products Tic Tacs pocket coffee and mon cherie which were all creations invented by Ferrero in 1997 Giovanni and his brother took over the company becoming this ceos Giovanni handled the creative aspects while his brother handled the day-to-day business operations this continued for quite some time until Pietra jr. passed away in a biking accident in 2011 and unfortunately Michele Giovanni's father passed away in 2015 for years Giovanni acted as the sole CEO and chairperson of Ferrero group until he hired the first executive that wasn't in the Ferrero family la pocha valetti this wasn't the only big change that Giovanni made however as you can probably tell Ferrero had never been a company prone to acquisitions most of their products were developed the house and the popularity of those innovative products are what allow them to grow but Giovanni decided this way was no longer the correct way to make the company expand afraid of being dwarfed by other candy companies he started acquiring as many products and companies as possible and he went for some big ones in 2015 for a low group bought Thornton's for 170 million dollars they also purchased Kellogg's cookies giving them control of Famous Amos and Keebler cookies but they weren't done there they bought Ferrara the American company behind lemon hats fireballs Red Hots now in latest and nerds for approximately 1.
3 billion dollars the biggest accusation however was Nestle's American candy line which Ferrero group bought for 2. 8 billion dollars included in this deal are some of my favorite candies including butterfingers crunch Baby Ruth Laffy Taffy Ansari with the Nestle and Ferrara purchase Giovanni had big plans Ferrara now handles the products from the Nestle purchase leaving him with less on his plate and more in his pockets many people have criticized or questions Giovanni about straying away from his ancestors manner of operation with Ferrara however in an interview Giovanni responded in defense of the acquisition saying tradition is like a bow the more we stretched the roast ring before we can throw the arrows of modernity and innovation and while many have said that the American market will be challenging given the rise in health-conscious parents Giovanni scooped up another company that may help with that Fannie Mae in Chicago Illinois has recently shifted to sell gluten and dairy-free sweets Ferraro purchased Fannie Mae for a cool 115 million just a few years ago giving them access to some healthier products even with all these acquisitions there is still one pride and joy of the Ferraro group that will probably remain their top seller forever Nutella if you haven't dipped a spoon in a jar full of Nutella at least once in their life I mean you're missing out my dear viewer today they make over three hundred and sixty five thousand tons of Nutella every year in fact they use about 1/3 of the world's hazelnuts for Nutella and Ferrero Rocher now because of this Giovanni also purchased several of the world's hazelnut supplies simultaneously making Ferraro group the world's largest hazelnut supplier and user they're being said the Nutella recipe is sacred to Ferrara and they are incredibly secretive about it so secretive in fact that no one was allowed to see their factory until 2011 no one from the outside world has had a peek of the factory in 65 years during that time matures and journalists were banned out of fear of industrial espionage which sounds a lot cooler than it actually is the recipe and equipment still remains a closely guarded secret many of the other chocolates were photographed and explained to journalists who visited in 2011 perfection is so important in the factory that even a tiny flaw and the appearance of a chocolate causes an immediate reaction when a bull flawed chocolate is detected a puff of air is shot at it by a machine sending the chocolate tumbling off the conveyor belt and hopefully into a secret stash basket that maybe the workers get into later but it isn't just the factory that is so secretive Giovanni the richest man in Italy the king of Nutella is so private about his life that no one but those close to him even know how many children he has or what country he resides in for a man with a fortune of 32 billion dollars you might imagine he'd be flashing his York's in private jets as he zipped around the world in style but really all the public knows about Giovanni is that he's an author he was a bit eccentric he's written eight novels most of which are dramas that take place in Africa those who have interviewed him have remarked that he speaks more like a game show host than a billionaire and perhaps that's just what the chocolate world needs a Nutella king with a Willy Wonka flat so there you have it the Empire of Nutella and the which man habits our Giovanni Ferrara what's your favorite sweet treat I don't know about you but I'm running to the candy store right now if you enjoyed the video make sure to leave a like and subscribe oh and turn on post notifications as always I'm mr.
