Nutella made in Australia will be destined for Asian kitchen tables

Italian food giant Ferrero is heavily investing in its Australian manufacturing sites as it increasingly views the country as a key hub to export its popular spread Nutella into Asia.

Massimo D’Ambrosio, managing director for Ferrero Australia.

Italian food giant Ferrero is heavily investing in its Australian manufacturing sites as it increasingly views the country as a key hub to export its popular spread Nutella into Asia, while also growing capacity to harvest strong growth locally for its bulging portfolio of consumer brands.

Ferrero, which manufactures Australia’s most popular spread, Nutella, as well as owning confectionary brands Ferrero Rocher, Crunch, Kinder, TicTac and Blue Ribbon ice cream, is taking a closer look at how people in Asia consume their own traditional breads and thus how they might spread Nutella on it.

“The Nutella factory in Australia is the first factory outside of Europe, so there is a strong sense of pride here in Australia for our factory and we invested $30m in the last five years and have a plan to invest to another $8m this year,” Ferrero Australia managing director Massimo D’Ambrosio said.

“The logic is to create a hub for Nutella that is serving not only Australia but especially north and southeast Asia, and we have some acceleration plans for those long-term strategic markets and today Australia is selling in those markets with Nutella.

“Yes it is a very important hub and we will continue to invest because we need additional capacity not only for Australia but also the opportunities in other markets we can serve from Australia.”

Nutella is Australia’s No.1 branded pantry spread.

Core markets included Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines.

“Nutella today is new to those markets but there is a strategy which is very important in those markets in that we start from the understanding of the local habits and we try to understand how the product can enter the local habits … in those markets there are other kinds of bread that is consumed differently,” Mr D’Ambrosio said.

“What we are trying to understand deeply is the consumer in the Asian market and the habit of what we call the ‘carrier of Nutella’ – and that’s the strategy. It is a much more long-term plan. And that’s fantastic for Ferrero because we love to plan for the long term but this is already generating some interesting results.”

Mr D’Ambrosio said that in the past six years the Nutella business into Asia had almost tripled, but it had a long way to go compared to Australia where Nutella was the No.1 spread and could be found in one in three homes. But Nutella is still not as popular here as in Europe, where in France it has a penetration of 43 per cent of households and in Italy almost 60 per cent.

Ferrero can think more long term, when it comes to Asia or investing in its Australian manufacturing base, as the business founded as a pastry shop in the small town of Alba in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946 is still family owned. Today, it is one of the world’s largest sweet-packaged food companies, with dozens of brands sold in more than 170 countries.

Ferrero owns a portfolio of confectionery brands including Kinder. Picture: Ole Spata

Ferrero’s factory in Lithgow, regional NSW, opened in 1976 and was the company’s first factory outside of Europe.

Mr D’Ambrosio said that over the past three years, Ferrero Australia had invested $30m in its Lithgow site, with a further $8m in 2025. These commitments have enabled a range of sustainability initiatives, such as rooftop solar, which generates about 20 per cent of the factory’s energy needs. Now that factory is hitting record Nutella production of more than 15 million kilograms.

To support its ambitious growth plans, Ferrero invested in purpose-built warehousing capacity in Kemps Creek, in Sydney’s west, in late 2024.

Ferrero is also moving beyond its traditional products, entering biscuits four years ago and more recently into ice cream, and this year expanding into protein bars with a brand called Fulfil which will be sold into Woolworths.

Mr D’Ambrosio said his business had been less affected by the cost-of-living pressures running through the supermarket aisles.

“Even if the cost-of-living pressure is there, we have a specific occasion and consumer habits that we are targeting that is less impacted by the cost of living,” he said. “But they are really focused on what is the value … because the game is about value for money, so thanks to our strong brand and everything that is around our brands, the response so far … has been very positive.”

Originally published as Nutella made in Australia will be destined for Asian kitchen tables