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Italian chocolate giant Ferrero to eclipse €10bn turnover

The Local Italy
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Italian chocolate giant Ferrero to eclipse €10bn turnover
Italian chocolate giant Ferrero is set to turnover €10 billion this year. Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

Italian confectionery giant Ferrero is set to become the first Italian food company to rake in more than €10 billion in a year.

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Seventy years since being founded in Alba, Piedmont, Ferrero now stands above Nestlé as the world's third-largest chocolate producer, almost doubling its turnover over the last decade.

US giant Mars Inc. is the world's largest chocolate company, having turnover of some €16.2 billion in 2015.

In 2006, just before the global financial crisis struck, Ferrero's turnover stood at €5.6 billion.

Ferrero finished the 2014-2015 year with a €9.4 billion turnover, a figure which represented growth of 13.4 percent on the previous year, Corriere della Sera reported.

The company is expecting to see similar growth for this financial year, which ends on August 31st and company CEO Giovanni Ferrero has confirmed turnover should hit double digit billions.

“Despite continuing instability,” wrote Ferrero in a recent accounts statement, “growth is continuing at a similar rate for the 2015 financial year. This is in a large part thanks to our huge dynamism in developing new markets.”

The company's flagship brands, including Kinder, Ferrero Rocher and Nutella, are now sold in 160 countries worldwide and company turnover has further been boosted high profile acquisitions, such as the purchase last year of British chocolate giant Thorntons for €156 million.

But amid its continuing success abroad, demand for Ferrero products in Italy has slowed over the last decade, with sales increasing just €100 million, from €1.3 billion in 2006 to €1.4 billion in 2016.

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