Nutella maker Ferrero has completed the acquisition of Nestlé’s US confectionery business, including more than 20 of its brands such as Butterfinger, BabyRuth, Crunch, and SweeTarts.
Mintel says mass produced chocolate brands such as Mars and Hershey are losing market share to imported premium chocolate brands in China primarily due to lack of innovation.
Ferrero Group has closed its fiscal year 2017 with a consolidated turnover of €10.5bn ($12.96bn), an increase of 1.5% compared to the previous year at €10.3bn ($12.72bn).
Ferrero has disclosed the locations of 116 palm oil mills across the globe, shortly after the publication of a report by environmental group Greenpeace.
Responding to a new report from Greenpeace, confectionery giant Hershey has named its palm oil suppliers, and has revealed that it has mapped almost 100% of palm oil supply chain to the mills, and approximately 14% to the plantations.
Three major confectioners will carry a redesigned ‘Be treatwise’ label on certain products in the UK to encourage moderate consumption. Separately Nestlé is cutting sugar in its UK confectionery range.
Manufacturers including Unilever, Mondelēz and Alpro are using claims of ‘new, improved recipe’ to hide ingredient "downgrading", according to a German consumer group.
Nestlé has sold its US candy business ($924m in 2016 sales), which includes Butterfinger, Baby Ruth and Raisinets, to Nutella maker Ferrero for $2.8bn in cash.
While Mars is currently the market leader in China’s chocolate confectionery space, Ferrero has been growing over the past five years with increased shares year-over-year, the latest Euromonitor data shows.
Ferrero has been accused of secretly changing the recipe of Nutella to replace expensive cocoa with cheaper milk powder, but it says it has merely "fine-tuned" the recipe.
A district court judge in Frankfurt has ordered Ferrero to label the number of individually wrapped chocolates on its Raffaello’s packaging after a local consumer complained that the product only showed its total weight.
