If you look at a list of the richest people in the world, you'll notice that most of their massive fortunes can be traced to some complex and rather boring source like finance, software development, telecommunication or oil exploration. So it's nice to discover that there are still a few people out there who have enormous fortunes thanks to something more simple, like chocolate. More specifically, Nutella. Let's repeat that. Someone earned a fortune thanks to Nutella! And not just a small fortune. Italian businessman Michele Ferrero is the son of Nutella inventor Pietro Ferrero. Thanks to that first massively successful product, today Michele runs the fourth largest chocolate maker in the world, Ferrero-Rocher. Also thanks to Nutella, today Michelle is the richest person in Italy with a personal net worth of $24.8 billion.
Michele Ferrero – Chocolate Billionaire
Michele Ferrero was born on April 26, 1925 in Dogliani, Italy. His father Pietro was a pastry chef who ran a confectionery shop with Michele's mother Piera. They say necessity is the mother of invention, and for the Ferreros this proved to be absolutely true. During World War II, rationing and embargoes eradicated Italy's supply of cocoa. Subsequently chocolate in all forms was extremely hard to buy or produce. In order to make his very limited supply of cocoa last, Pietro Ferrero began cutting his chocolate products with hazelnuts. BTW, hazelnuts are plentiful in the northwestern Italian region of Piedmont. The resulting product turned out to be pretty tasty. With a few more iterations, Pietro would eventually go on to perfect what we now know as Nutella. The first products were more similar to a loaf of bread. It wasn't until later than Pietro got the formula down to a creamier texture.
After local residents devoured his new creation, Pietro and his bother Giovanni launched Ferrero, Spa.. Pretty soon the Ferrero brothers had transformed their tiny northern Italian pastry shop into a confectionery factory. Giovanni built a sales network for Ferrero and is credited with creating the company's wide global reach. Michele assumed control of the Ferrero family candy empire in 1949.
In 1963, Michele took his father's hazelnut chocolate cream and branded it Nutella across Europe. It was an instant success. A few years later, Ferrero launched the Kinder Chocolate line. Known as the 'Kinder Surprise', each chocolate has a small toy inside it. Under Michele Ferrero's leadership, Ferrero Spa introduced many new products and lines, including Ferrero Rocher, Mon Cheri, Tic Tac, and Pocket Coffee. Fast forward a few decades and today Ferrero, Spa is the world's fourth-largest chocolate maker with more than 30 brands under its umbrella. The company reported revenue of more than $11 billion in 2012.
In 1997, Michele transferred operating control of the company to his two sons who were appropriately named, Pietro and Giovanni. In 2011, Giovanni (the son, not the uncle) was named sole CEO after his brother Pietro died in a bicycle accident in South Africa caused by an apparent heart attack.
Giovanni now leads Ferraro, which has more than 70 affiliated companies, with 15 production plants and 22,000 employees worldwide. For every 100 hazelnuts grown on Earth, 15 end up in a Ferrero product. Despite its size, the company and its owners are known for being very secretive and private people, to the point they are rarely seen in public.
The 88 year old Michele actually spends most of his time at a palatial residence in Monte Carlo. With $24.8 billion in the bank, he is the 28th richest man in the world. He owns a Ferrari, because what self-respecting Italian billionaire wouldn't? But he actually prefers his bicycle and is known to ride many miles a day. Every week this octogenarian travels via helicopter from Monte Carlo to Ferraro Spa.'s main chocolate factory in Alba, Italy to taste new recipes. That's one sweet gig!
Read more: If You Wanted To Be Worth $25 Billion, You Should Have Invented Nutella!