The gigantic Italian confectionery firm is increasing production capacity for Nutella and Kinder Bueno at their French site, the world’s largest production facility for the famous chocolate-hazelnut spread.
The family-owned Italian firm Ferrero, known for such iconic brands as Ferrero, Kinder, Raffaello and Delacre, is aiming to pursue development in France, its third-largest market, after Germany and Italy. Ferrero France will be investing €38.5 million in its plant in Villers-Ecalles, in Normandy. The announcement was one of the 21 investment projects from foreign firms revealed at the “Choose France” event on January 17 of this year.
Since the plant in Normandy opened, in 1959, it has become one of the jewels in the Italian brand’s crown. It produces 600,000 jars of Nutella a day, which represents 26% of worldwide production (and makes the plant the group’s largest Nutella production site) and 20% of the world’s Kinder Bueno (the group’s third-largest site). Seventy percent of the plant’s output is sold in France; the rest is exported within Europe, essentially to Benelux, England, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
The sum has been allocated for building a new 6,500 m² (70,000 sq. ft.) storage facility, as well as for modernizing the plant’s receiving and storage equipment. It adds up to a total of €135 million invested from 2012 to 2020.
“We are continuing to modernize and decarbonize the Nutella and Kinder Bueno production lines,”
says Ferrero France, which, with 1,000 employees, is well-established in the Rouen area.
in terms of tonnage, the Normandy plant is the group’s 4th largest, after sites in Italy, Germany and Poland. For 2022, the firm is aiming for 6% growth in France, to reach €1.4 billion in revenue.