Ferrero is a family-owned company headquartered in Alba, Italy that owns 18 consumer brands through 1 subsidiary, and has 5 recorded transactions.[1]
Ferrero was founded by pastry maker Pietro Ferrero in Alba, Piedmont in 1946, where wartime cocoa shortages led him to stretch chocolate with local hazelnuts. It remains family-owned through a Luxembourg holding company and has expanded into American biscuits and ice cream by acquisition.
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Full-screen interactive tree → · Download as infographic
| Entity | Stake | Jurisdiction | Since | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ferrara Candy Company | 100% | United States | 2017 | [3] |
Ferrero agreed to acquire WK Kellogg Co for $23 per share in cash, which would move the North American rights to Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies to the Italian family-owned group.
Ferrero acquired Wells Enterprises, the largest privately held ice cream maker in the United States, bringing Blue Bunny and Halo Top into a company known for chocolate. The price was not disclosed. It followed Ferrero's earlier purchases of American confectionery and made it a substantial frozen dessert business as well.
Kellogg sold Keebler, Famous Amos and the rest of its cookies and fruit snacks business to Ferrero as it concentrated on snacks and cereal. The seller entity later became Kellanova in the 2023 split.
Nestlé sold its United States confectionery business, including Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Crunch and around twenty other brands, to Ferrero. Nestlé kept its confectionery businesses in every other market.
Ferrero acquired Thorntons for about GBP 112 million, taking a British chocolatier founded in Sheffield in 1911 whose shops had been closing for years as supermarkets took the trade. Ferrero closed the remaining stores and kept the brand on supermarket shelves.
No tagged news items yet. Headlines are added nightly from public feeds; only titles and links are stored.
Headlines link to the original publisher. Brandtree does not reproduce article text.
Ferrero owns 18 consumer brands tracked here, including Brach's, Butterfinger, Thorntons, Baby Ruth, Keebler and Blue Bunny.
Yes. Ferrero is headquartered in Alba, Italy and was founded in 1946.
Ferrero is privately held. Ferrero was founded by pastry maker Pietro Ferrero in Alba, Piedmont in 1946, where wartime cocoa shortages led him to stretch chocolate with local hazelnuts.
The most recent completed acquisition recorded here is Blue Bunny and Halo Top on 1 April 2022.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
Report a correction Opens a pre-filled GitHub issue. See our corrections policy.