Who Owns Nutella?

Nutella's origins lie in the aftermath of World War II, when cocoa was scarce and expensive across Europe due to wartime disruptions to supply chains and trade. In 1946, Pietro Ferrero, a pastry maker and confectioner in Alba, in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, developed a sweet paste he called "Pasta Gianduja" (later renamed "Giandujot"). The paste combined roasted hazelnuts, which were abundant and inexpensive in Piedmont's hazelnut-growing region, with a small quantity of cocoa and sugar. The Piedmont region's hazelnut orchards, which produce the Tonda Gentile variety prized for its flavor, provided the raw material that would become Nutella's defining ingredient.

Pietro Ferrero's original Giandujot was sold in solid blocks wrapped in foil, intended to be sliced and placed on bread as a substitute for the chocolate spreads that were unavailable due to cocoa shortages. The product was an immediate success in the local market, providing an affordable sweet treat at a time when sugar and chocolate were luxuries. Pietro Ferrero founded the Ferrero company in 1946 to manufacture and distribute the product.

In 1951, Pietro Ferrero reformulated the product into a creamier, spreadable version called "Supercrema Gianduja," which could be spread directly on bread like butter. This version was more convenient and appealing to consumers, and it became enormously popular throughout Italy. Pietro Ferrero died in 1949, and his son Michele Ferrero took over the company's leadership, proving to be one of the most gifted food product developers and marketers of the 20th century.

Michele Ferrero recognized that the Supercrema brand had limitations as a pan-European product due to Italian regulations that restricted the use of "super" in food product names. In 1964, he reformulated the product and relaunched it under the new name "Nutella," a portmanteau of the English word "nut" and the Italian diminutive suffix "-ella." The first jar of Nutella was produced on April 20, 1964, at the Ferrero factory in Alba. The new name was designed to be easily pronounceable across multiple European languages, facilitating the brand's international expansion.

Nutella's expansion across Europe in the 1960s and 1970s was rapid and transformative. The brand entered France in 1966, Germany in 1965, and subsequently expanded to other European markets. In each market, Ferrero positioned Nutella as a breakfast food for children, marketing it as a nutritious and delicious way to encourage children to eat bread in the morning. This positioning, which emphasized Nutella's hazelnut and milk content rather than its sugar and fat content, proved highly effective in building the brand's association with family breakfasts and childhood memories.

The brand entered the United States market in 1983 and Australia in the 1970s, gradually building a global presence. By the 1990s, Nutella had become one of the world's most recognized food brands, with a presence in over 75 countries. The brand's iconic glass jar, with its distinctive white label featuring the Nutella logo in red and brown, became one of the most recognizable packaging designs in the food industry.

World Nutella Day, celebrated annually on February 5, was created in 2007 by American blogger Sara Rosso as an unofficial celebration of the brand. Ferrero officially adopted and endorsed the event in 2015, transforming it into a global marketing occasion that generates significant social media engagement and brand awareness.