A good leadership

Written by Antonio Sgobba

“Pietro Ferrero was in South Africa with his father Michele for this noble humanitarian mission: to give a greater impetus to the Johannesburg-based Ferrero Social Enterprise initiative.” These were the words used in the sober press release issued by the Ferrero Group to announce the sudden death of the company founder’s son. The tragic loss of the Chief Executive of the group shone a light on the company social commitment which had always been kept low profile, since sobriety is a distinctive trait of the group and of the family behind it.

In 2009 while the word was crying for the economic crisis, the Ferrero Group invested 10 million euros in a new factory in Vereeniging, near Johannesburg, for the production of the Kinder Joy for the Asian market. A year earlier the company had opened a factory farm, Agrisudafrica, located at the border with Lesotho. This was the first project of nut trees cultivation in Africa.  As part of the project millions of nut trees were bedded out, in order to diversify the supplying.

According to Ferrero business was supposed to be the driving force of community development, in Alba, the small town where the company was founded in 1942, as in Africa . “The Ferrero Social Enterprise initiative was conceived and planned in order to improve the life conditions and the development of particularly underprivileged areas “ they say from Alba. The initiative created new job opportunities and developed products that are suitable to the needs of the local population, taking into account their purchasing power and the weather conditions in those regions.

 Once the factories are at full capacity, the profits are invested on local projects. “Through his company, he was involved with several social upliftment projects dealing with HIV-education for the children of South Africa.”Said Alan Winde, Minister of the Economic development. In 2005 the initiative, part of the project United Kinder of the World, brought a factory of 60 employees to Yaoundè, in Cameron, while the plant in South Africa hired 90 people. A model that in the following years was exported to Baramati, in India and to Colombo, in Sri Lanka.

“The collaboration of the Salesian community, already active in those areas was pivotal. Not only they suggested the areas that would have been more suitable for the settlement, but they also recommended skilled staff for the job.”  Says the  Ferrero Social Enterprise department  spokesman.

Young people from Cameron and from South Africa now have the chance to work for one of the most important entrepreneurial groups in the world. There have been difficulties: in countries where distribution is often deficient, disorganized and outdated. Inside the factories there are some areas dedicated to research and studies on new products, often designed for the new emerging markets.