A workaholic, Michele even married in house - his secretary at the company Maria Franca. But asking her out for dinner on their first date he warned he could only talk shop: 'It will be very boring because I will just talk about chocolate. The couple's sons, also Giovanni and Pietro, were allowed to 'eat Nutella for breakfast every day', Giovanni said in an interview last year, confessing that he allowed his children to do the same.
In preparation for his role as heir, Michele sometimes blindfolded his eldest son Pietro as a small boy and made him find his way out of the factory using his only sense of smell. Sadly Michele was forced to send his own children away to live in Brussels as during the s, the so-called Years of Lead, when the children of many wealthy businessmen in Italy were kidnapped for ransom by the mafia and right wing terrorists.
The sweet-toothed eccentric had the gift of understanding what children wanted. In the s, when there were few toy shops, Michele decided that children should experience the excitement that they get from Easter every day - creating the Kinder Surprise egg with a hidden toy inside. Thrifty: After the second world war, when Italy's economy was crippled, Pietro made expensive cocoa imports stretch further by adding ground hazelnuts, which were cheap and grew abundantly around Alba pictured.
Home: Alba mayor, Maurizio Marello, said the town 'owes everything to Ferrero', adding: 'Someone in every family works or has worked at Ferrero. The town identifies completely with the company'. Production line: Around Ferrero Rochers are made a minute on custom engineered machines in the company's factory pictured.
Now the world's third biggest toymaker, Ferrero employs a team of twenty full-time inventors who work with child psychologists to create new playthings.
Michele moved to Monte Carlo where he had a personal laboratory and commuted each day to Alba by helicopter. He identified a supermarket near Luxembourg where he claimed 'the shopper represented the average European' and these lucky consumers became the testing ground for many of his inventions.
He would place unbranded products secretly at the supermarket and then visit undercover to get their opinions. While Kinder, Nutella and Tic Tac - all invented in the s - struck gold, many other products such as Pico Rico Tico, a triangular chocolate treat, Il Budino Baba, a trifle shaped dessert, and the politically incorrect Negrita chocolate bar did not stand the test of time. Some chocolates such as Pocket Coffee, which was created for lorry drivers in the s when there was no coffee bars at service stations, did not find success in Britain but flew off European shelves.
Mon Cheri, a chocolate with a cherry liquor in it, failed in the UK apparently because of the British habit of biting into chocolate which caused the liquor to spill. In continental Europe Tic Tac flavours include eucalyptus and mountain herbs while elsewhere you can find banana popcorn. Some of the company's best creations, such as Tics Tac Mixers, that change flavour and colour midway through, have a distinctly Wonka-ish bent.
The s saw the launch of Ferrero Rocher - the Ambassador's favourite - if the much parodied advertisements are to be believed. Devout: Ferrero is said to have modelled one of his most famous chocolates, the Ferrero Rocher pictured , on the Rock de Massabielle mountain at Lourdes, which he visited every year. Michele was a devout Catholic, and is said to have modelled Rocher on the Roc de Massabielle, a craggy rock grotto at Lourdes which he visited every year on pilgrimage.
He even ordered a Madonna of Lourdes to be installed in each of the twenty plants worldwide. A perfectionist, Michele had taken five years to finesse his pralines product, struggling to achieve the desired curve in the wafer. But soon after production started it ground to a halt because he claimed the machines were not pressing the white label on in a uniformly central manner.
Rochers, according to the Ferreros should not be kept in the fridge, and have a strict shelf-life of eight months. In Mediterranean countries they are even recalled in the summer when temperatures rise. Hazelnuts are encased in half-spherical wafers, then piped full of praline cream before being sandwiched together and passed under a real chocolate waterfall. The production line resembles a toy shop as the pralines slide down a helter skelter shaft before shooting off along a raceway that resembles a child's toy train set.
Ferrero's faithful workers stand to attention looking for the tiniest crack in the wafer. Defects seemingly invisible to the naked eye cause them to spring into action to remove the offending product, which is then turned into animal feed and fed to pigs at the local farms. Dozens of professional 'tasters' all over the world have what sounds like a dream job. New recipe: Michele added sugar to his father's original chocolate recipe, renamed it Nutella and started selling it in jars pictured, one of the first Nutella posters.
Skilled: Ferrero's workers are trained to find the tiniest cracks or defects in the delicate Ferrero Rocher chocolates pictured. To be selected they must correctly identify the flavours of sweet, bitter, salty and umami, senior taster Stefania Agnelli explains. In another fiendish test, citric acid, kitchen salt, sugar and caffeine are dissolved in water.
The tasters must then be able to place them in order of greatest concentration. Women between 25 and 40 are best, although pregnant women are the most sensitive to taste, she says. Candidates are then tested with raw materials such as milk, to see if they can identify the one that is less fresh. Only a few master tasters can identify the Rocher made using recipe A the normal recipe versus the Rocher made using recipe B made using a new supplier.
Working at the factory is a job for life, workers say. When Michele took over the company in he had vowed to his workers: 'I will not rest until I have secured a safe and peaceful future for your children. And he was true to his word. At a time when millions of Italians were forced to abandon the countryside to find work in the major cities, he became the first to send buses to collect workers from their homes on the farms and bring them to the factory, so families did not have to leave their land.
Creation: To make Ferrero Rochers, hazelnuts are encased in two rounded wafers which are piped full of praline cream, before the encased treat is passed through a chocolate waterfall and scattered with hazelnuts. Perfectionist: It took Ferrero five years to finesse the famous Ferrero Rocher chocolate because he struggled to perfect the curve in the wafer. Employees are supplied with heat from the factory for their homes, nurseries at the factory and free health care for life.
Retired workers spend their days learning Irish dancing or computing at the foundation founded and run by Michele's widow Maria Franca, now the world's fifth richest woman. The rebel of the category is launched. The Kinder division enlarges the Kinder Family.
Ferrero Rocher is launched. The First Acquisitions During , Ferrero opened the dawn of a new era for our company through two important acquisitions. In March, the Company obtained the final approval to start the integration process with Oltan, now Ferrero Findik, the leading company for collecting, roasting and trading hazelnuts in Turkey. The second acquisition, as of August, was Thorntons, the chocolate confectionary company founded in in the United Kingdom.
Thorntons , employing more than 3. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Already subscribed?
Log in. Forgotten your password?
0コメント