Michele Ferrero (; 26 April 1925 – 14 February 2015) was an Italian billionaire businessman. He owned the chocolate manufacturer

Ferrero SpA Ferrero SpA (), more commonly known as Ferrero Group or simply Ferrero, is an Italian multinational company with headquarters in Alba, Italy. manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionery products, and the second biggest chocolate producer ...

, Europe's second largest confectionery company (at the time of his death), which he developed from the small bakery and café of his father in

Alba, Piedmont Alba ( pms, label=Piedmontese, Arba; la, Alba Pompeia) is a town and ''comune'' of Piedmont, Italy, in the Province of Cuneo. It is one of the main cities in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and M ...

. His first big success was adding vegetable oil to the traditional '' gianduja'' paste to make the popular spread

Nutella Nutella (; ; ) is a brand of sweetened hazelnut Cocoa solids, cocoa Spread (food), spread. Nutella is manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero SpA, Ferrero and was first introduced in 1964, although its first iteration dates to 1963. Histor ...

Early life

Michele Ferrero was born on 26 April 1925 in

Dogliani Dogliani () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo. Dogliani borders the following municipalities: Belvedere Langhe, Bonvicino, Boss ...

, the son of

Pietro Ferrero Pietro Ferrero (; 2 September 1898 – 2 March 1949) was the founder of Ferrero SpA, an Italian confectionery and chocolatier company. His company invented Nutella, a hazelnut-cream spread, which is now sold in over 160 countries. Ferrero Roch ...

, who founded the Ferrero company, and his wife Piera Cillario.

Career

Ferrero joined the firm in 1949. He was the richest person in Italy, with a personal wealth of $26bn surpassing

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

in March 2008. In May 2014, the

Bloomberg Billionaires Index The ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people based on their net worth. It draws information from "action in the stock market, economic indicators and news reports", features a ...

listed Ferrero as the 20th richest person in the world. Ferrero's brands include

Mon Chéri Mon Chéri is an internationally known brand name of the Italian Ferrero company for a chocolate confectionery. The phrase "mon chéri" is French for "my darling". The ''Mon Chéri'' is a single-wrapped combination consisting of a "heart" of c ...

Kinder Chocolate Kinder Chocolate ( it, Kinder Cioccolato; "Kinder" is German for “Children") is a brand of chocolate bars produced by Italian multinational confectionery company Ferrero. Kinder Chocolate In Alba, Italy, in 1968, Michele Ferrero, proposed ...

Ferrero Rocher Ferrero Rocher () is a chocolate and hazelnut confectionery, introduced in 1982 and produced by the Italian company Ferrero. Michele Ferrero is credited as the product's creator. Each Ferrero Rocher ball is covered in foil and placed into a pa ...

Tic Tacs Tic Tac (stylized as "tic tac") is a brand of small, hard mint manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero. They were first produced in 1969 and are now available in a variety of flavours in over 100 countries. Tic Tacs are usually sold in sma ...

and Kinder Eggs. From 1997, his sons,

Giovanni Ferrero Giovanni Ferrero (; born 21 September 1964) is an Italian businessman. He assumed the leadership of the confectionery company Ferrero SpA after the death of his brother Pietro Ferrero in 2011. As of October 2022, he has an estimated net worth of ...

and

, co-led the company. After Pietro died on 18 April 2011, in an accident in South Africa, Giovanni became the sole CEO.

Personal life

Ferrero married Maria Franca Fissolo in 1962, and they had two sons together,

and

Pietro Ferrero Jr. Pietro Ferrero Jr. (; 11 September 1963 – 18 April 2011) was the joint CEO (with his brother Giovanni) of Italian confectionery company Ferrero SpA, from 1997 until his death in April 2011. Biography Ferrero was born in Turin, the elder son ...

He was a fervent Catholic. Ferrero visited the

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Château ...

shrine annually, and had a

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

placed in every factory and office. Ferrero died on 14 February 2015, at his home in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

, Monaco. He was 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrero, Michele 1925 births 2015 deaths Businesspeople in confectionery Italian billionaires Italian businesspeople Italian Roman Catholics Italian expatriates in Monaco People from Monte Carlo

Michele Michele (), is an Italian male given name, akin to the English male name Michael. Michele (pronounced ), is also an English female given name that is derived from the French Michèle. It is a variant spelling of the more common (and identically ...

People from Dogliani

Early life

Career

Personal life

See also

References