Michele Ferrero took over at 25 in 1949 and built a pastry shop into a global candy giant

Pietro Ferrero opened his first chocolate laboratory in Alba, Piedmont, in 1942, inventing a hazelnut-chocolate paste when cocoa was rationed; the business passed to his son Michele when Pietro died in 1949. Michele was 25 and took over a company that was still essentially a local pastry operation.

Michele's decision was to turn his father's paste into an industrial brand and then keep innovating: Nutella launched in 1964, Kinder chocolates in 1968, Tic Tac a year later, and Ferrero Rocher in 1982. The company's own history credits Pietro's creativity with giving Michele 'the platform to launch the Ferrero company we know today.'

By 1997 Michele handed the running of the company to his two sons, Pietro and Giovanni; after Pietro's death in 2011, Giovanni carried on. The Ferrero Group is now one of the world's largest sweet-packaged-food companies, with more than 35 brands sold in over 170 countries, and Forbes ranked the family worth $23.4 billion in 2014.

From a small pastry shop to a global group: Nutella (1964), Kinder (1968), Tic Tac (1969), Ferrero Rocher (1982); family worth $23.4B in 2014, brands in 170+ countries

Industrializing the hazelnut paste turned a regional wartime substitute into a scalable global product rather than a local delicacy.

Michele kept launching new brands (Kinder, Tic Tac, Rocher) instead of milking one hit, so the group never depended on a single product.

Staying private and family-owned let Ferrero invest for decades without quarterly pressure, funding international plants from 1956 onward.

A son who inherits a small family workshop can outgrow the niche by industrializing the father's one good idea and then adding brands; each product line compounds the family's craft reputation.

Ferrero expanded across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and Southeast Asia, remaining family-owned into its third generation. Under Giovanni it acquired brands including Nestlé's US confectionery business and continues to grow while keeping Alba as its heart.