PARIS — Nutella now has its own version without animal products. Italian-based Ferrero, which manufactures the famous chocolate-and-hazelnut spread, will officially launch a plant-based version on Wednesday in Italy, France and Belgium, which will coincide with Nutella’s 60th anniversary.
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The vegan Nutella, which will also soon be available in Germany, will contain rice and chickpea syrup instead of milk. “Taste and texture are exactly the same,” Ferrero says. The spread’s new version will be produced in Italy in the Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi factory, even though the largest Nutella site in the world is in France, in the northern city of Villers-Ecalles.
The company, which knows how sensitive fans are to any variation of the recipe, has devoted five years of research to perfect the new Nutella. It has big ambitions with a goal to triple its sales of the chocolate plant-based category, across all brands, which reached €6.7 million ($7.4 million) in the first seven months of 2024, in a global market of €434 million ($497 million).
As of Tuesday, a few Nutella lovers had already gotten their fingers on the new vegan version — see below for the first feedback.
A hyper-competitive market
Ferrero is not alone in this segment. Its compatriot Rigoni di Asiago launched such products almost ten years ago under its Nocciolata brand, while, more recently, French brands Jardin Bio and Funkie Veggie started selling their own chocolate vegan spreads. Each has its own ingredients and proportions.
These competitors use neither milk nor the ever-controversial palm oil, which is contested due to its role in deforestation in Asia and over which Rigoni and Ferrero opposed each other in court a few months ago. Nocciolata now contains soy milk instead of cow’s milk.
“With the launch of Nutella Plant Based,” Ferrero says it wants to “meet the growing demand for plant-based products, which is fueled by an increasing number of consumers who want to reduce or avoid animal products for diet or lifestyle reasons.” The Italian company points to a 2023 poll by Kantar which shows that “a third of French people buying chocolate products want to reduce their consumption of animal products.”
Slightly more expensive
“Vegan certified” Nutella will be available in all stores starting this week at the recommended price of €4.19 (,63) for 350 grams — slightly more expensive than the classic version.
Chocolate spreads are still popular, despite the rise of prices due to inflation and the extraordinary surge in cocoa costs. In France, sales in value of the category have increased steadily since 2020 quite significantly, with peak increases of 10.8% in 2020 and 14.8% last year. Volumes have also increased, but in a proportion two to four times lower. In any case, the French swallow 300,000 jars of spreads per day — a dizzying figure. Since the beginning of the year, turnover has increased by 8.3% to €434 million (9 million) and volumes by almost 5%.
While it used to be the leader with an 85% market share, Nutella has lost ground, particularly to the countless distributors’ private labels, which come in second place. But Ferrero’s brand still remains the dominant one with 66% of sales. Nocciolata, the second largest brand, controls 6% of the market, according to Nielsen.
Created in 1964 in the Piedmont region, the Nutella brand remains a driving force for Ferrero, which has also used it in all sorts of products, including cookies and muffins and even launched a chocolate ice cream before the summer. The entire range, with sales of €390 million (1 million), represents one-quarter of Ferrero’s total turnover in France (€1.56 billion, .72 billion).
