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Mayans, Olmecs and Aztecs They knew how to appreciate the value of cocoa, and that is why they used it as currency to buy goods and services long before Christopher Columbus. make those lands yours just by reaching them by boat more than 500 years ago. In fact, chocolate has become a “guilty pleasure” these days. so widespreadwe are (yes, I include myself) causing global shortages. Precisely, cocoa is the main ingredient of a product that made two brothers extremely rich in ruined post-World War II Italy: the Ferreros. From that scarcity emerged an empire with $19 billion in annual revenue and a presence in more than 170 countries. The challenge: create a chocolate bar without cocoa In the middle of World War II, Italy suffered an extreme shortage of many things, but especially cocoa, a problem that had already hit Europe during the time of Napoleon. As and as explained in The Green CompassIn 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte became involved in a geopolitical and commercial battle with his enemy the United Kingdom. This caused the volume of trade to reduce considerably, causing a shortage of overseas products. One of them was cocoa, of course. Given the shortage of the main ingredient, a master chocolatier from Turin He came up with the brilliant idea of ​​mixing the little chocolate he had left with a dough made from hazelnuts that were abundant in the area. In this way, it could offer a delicacy with a certain chocolate flavor, but using less cocoa in its production. This is how the gianduia or gianduja. Almost a century and a half later, in 1946, the brothers Pietro and Giovanni Ferrero They found themselves in the same cocoa shortage situation than his Turin colleague. If it had worked before, why wouldn’t it work a second time? Cioccolateria Ferrero in Alba The Ferrero brothers revived the old recipe for hazelnut paste with sugar and cocoa to survive, creating a spreadable bar that would lay the foundations for a product that today sweetens breakfasts and snacks around the world. ​This hazelnut paste and little cocoa saved the Cioccolateria Ferrero that Pietro ran in Alba, south of Turin and in the heart of the Piedmontese countryside. The product, in the form chocolate bar that could be rolled and spread on the bread that mothers gave to their hungry children quickly sold out in local stores. Giandidot by Ferrero Faced with unexpected success, Pietro and his brother Giovanni soon formalized their business, founding a company called Ferrero SpA and opening a small factory in Alba. While Giovanni focused on distribution, Pietro focused on overseeing the manufacturing of his flagship product. However, Pietro died in 1949 of a heart attack. His son Michele, who was 24 years old at the time, took over from his father at the head of the factory. Ferrero factory workers on a company bus Michele was not a businessman like his uncle Giovanni, nor did he have a university degree, but he did he had inherited his father’s creativityto whom affectionately They called “the scientist” and he was willing to improve the recipe for the product that was making them rich. In 1949, Michele made some changes to the formula of the gianduja to make it creamier and easier to spread. With this change, the Ferreros could differentiate themselves from other confectioners who also produced the traditional Piedmontese sweet. The “Supercrema” had just been born. According to what is collected in the book ‘Nutella World‘, the success of the Supercrema was such that the brand soon had the second largest fleet of trucks, only behind that of the army. In 1947, the company barely had a dozen distribution trucks, in 1950 they already had 154 and by 1960 there were more than 1,624 delivery trucks for their company. cocoa cream with hazelnuts. Ferrero Supercream Ad ​Birth of a star product: Nutella In 1964, a change in product labeling legislation banned the use of superlatives in brand names. That forced the Ferreros to change the name of their Supercrema. Given the success of Supercrema, the Ferreros were already thinking about the internationalization of the brand, so they used the English name of its main ingredient “Nut” and, after trying variants such as Nutsy, Nussly, Nutosa and Nutina, they finally decided to use the Latin suffix “-ella” to maintain its Italian roots. Nutella was born and its iconic glass jar with a wide mouth and flattened body. Its smooth texture and addictive flavor made it an immediate success throughout Europe, but Michele continued trying different recipes. The consolidation of Ferrero as the empire it is today occurred with the Kindergarten release in 1968, the “unexpected” Tic Tac mint candies in 1969 and Ferrero Rocher in 1982, coinciding with the opening of factories in several countries. Today, Ferrero generates $19 billion annually, maintains secret formulas and operates in 170 countries without being listed on the stock market. Ferrero established itself as world leader in hazelnut creamseven having its own World Nutella Day since 2007: February 5. Michele Ferrero died in 2015 at 89 years old, leaving a fortune estimated at more than 26.5 billion dollars which made him the richest man in Italy, but he had also continued to manage a large empire as a family business in which the relatives of his employees were hired. As and how I collected The Spanish“Hiring children of employees strengthened the bond of the community and united many of its men and women to the company throughout their working lives,” noted Salvatore Giannella, biographer of the businessman and author of ‘Michele Ferrero, share values ​​to create value’. Giovanni Ferrero, grandson of Pietro Ferrero, inherited the empire of cocoa and hazelnut cream, increasing the family heritage up to 40.8 billion dollars. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos asked his parents for their life savings to found Amazon. They only asked him one question: “What is the Internet? Image | Unsplash (Marko Blažević), Flickr (Spiegelneuronen) Ferrero