Ferrero buys about a quarter of the world’s hazelnut supply every year. That’s more than 100,000 tons. Thanks to Nutella, hazelnuts have become trendy, driving up prices and encouraging farmers in regions that have never produced the nuts, like Chile and Australia, to give it a try. The company contends that two years’ worth of its hazelnut supply could fill the Roman Colosseum, and in 2014, Ferrero bought the world’s leading hazelnut supplier, the Otlan Group. 6. EACH JAR CONTAINS 52 HAZELNUTS. Ferrero gifted members of the Italian national cycling team giant jars of Nutella personalized with their names just before the 2014 UCI Road World Championships. The company has also been a sponsor of its home country’s World Cup soccer team. 23. BUT THERE’S A NUTELLA CURSE. Ferrero originally made his chocolate-hazelnut paste into a loaf designed to be sliced and placed on bread, kind of like a chocolatey version of American cheese slices. 4. IT SPREADS FAR AND WIDE.

With three flavours available, the Kinder Miniatures collection will have excellent visibility in stores and is sure to prove a hit with retailers and consumers alike,” Ferrero stated. Highlights of the new collection include the Nutella Apparel 750g pot of the spread dressed in a ‘snazzy zip-up top’. “This cute collectable sleeve serves also as a pen and pencil caddy or a make-up brush holder,” says Ferrero. In 2015, Ferrero slapped a rogue Nutella cafe scheduled to open in Brooklyn with a lawsuit. First, the restaurant was to be named the Nutelleria, but changed to Nuteria over legal concerns. Unfortunately, Ferrero still thought the Nutella-themed restaurant had too similar of a name to its own brand, and filed suit. The cafe closed in May 2015, as did, presumably, dreams of Miami and Los Angeles outposts. However, the New York location of the Italian market Eataly does have a Ferrero-approved Nutella bar. 15. NUTELLA HAS A SMEARED REPUTATION. Heading the launches is the new Ferrero Golden Gallery range, which includes the popular Ferrero Rocher, a whole hazelnut surrounded by layers of crispy wafer, creamy filling, milk chocolate and finely chopped hazelnut pieces; and Ferrero Rondnoir, with fine wafer and rich creamy cocoa filling and a dark chocolate covered hazelnut.Ferrero Travel Market has extended its Kinder, Nutella, Tic Tac and Ferrero Praline portfolio, and will unveil the new additions plus travel retail exclusives at the TFWA World Exhibition this October (Stand Number: Green Village J35). In designing the ‘Hello World’ platform we set out to emphasise Nutella’s distinctive qualities – its ‘Nutellaness’. North America’s Nutella is made in Canada, but you can also find the imported version from Italy in specialty shops (you can tell it’s from Italy by the glass jar). Despite the same list of ingredients, many Nutella aficionados claim that the stuff made in Ontario tastes sweeter and less hazelnutty than the European version. In 2014, a Washington Post correspondent dove into the debate with the help of a pastry chef, and came to the conclusion that the difference in taste could be the result of trans fats in the European version. Yum yum. 20. ITALY’S SO PROUD OF NUTELLA, IT PUT IT ON A STAMP. Confetteria Raffaello is also presenting exclusively in global travel retail a gift box of its coconut delights. The Raffaello 200g Coffret, decorated with a red ribbon, contains 20 coconut-flavoured pralines with a whole almond and a crunchy white coconut casing. It will be available in travel retail from January 2015. Over the last 18 months this has included substantial development of the Kinder category around the highly successful Kinderino aviator platform. The new Nutella and Tic Tac travel exclusive collections have been very well-received and have added value to these brands in the global business.

Ferrero’s CEO is Giovanni Ferrero, the son of Michele and grandson of Pietro. His brother Pietro shared the title of co-CEO until his sudden death while cycling in 2011. 9. ITS SISTER COMPANY MAY SOUND FAMILIAR. Ferrero Travel Market General Manager Francois Godin said: “Ferrero has had another great year in travel retail with strong growth in all our markets worldwide. Contributing to this growth is our strategy of mixing a local focus with constant innovation in our product portfolio. Ferrero described the Kinderino Sailor T7 as eye-catching on the shelf and believes it will attract sales in airports and on ferries and cruise-ships.We wanted to attract the shopper through multiple touch points, interact with him with fun activities and showcase our new travel-exclusive range. We look forward to working with retailers to roll this out worldwide early next year.” In 2004, Nutella began using up-and-coming young players for Germany’s national soccer team in its advertisements. The problem? Once becoming the face of sweet hazelnutty goodness, these players tended to not live up to their potential as future all-stars. Many of them got booted from the team in what began to be called Nutella fluch, or the Nutella curse. 24. YOU CAN’T NAME YOUR CHILD AFTER IT… In a string of new initiatives from Ferrero Travel Market, the company is now set to launch new Nutella platform, ‘Hello World’, that will be rolled out in travel retail from February 2018.