BUSINESS

Ferrero International S.A., the holding company of the Ferrero Group, has approved the Group’s consolidated financial statements for the year ended on 31 August 2011. As at said date, the Group was comprised of seventy-two affiliated companies, including thirty-eight business units, fifteen production plants and three social enterprises, and its products are taken up by more than one hundred outlet markets.

Headed by Giovanni Ferrero as Chief Executive Officer, the Group closed the operating year with a consolidated turnover of 7,218 million Euro, representing an increase of 9.1% over the previous year. Operating results were particularly good in Russia, the U.S. and Brazil. The operating result for the Group as a whole, with an EBT of 856 million Euro, down 4.1% over the previous year, on the other hand, reflects an extremely difficult economic situation at international level, in the presence of high financial volatility affecting all countries the world over.

The average number of people employed in 2010/11 was 21,913 units, well in keeping with the employment level during the previous year (21.736 units).

In the course of the year ended on 31 August 2011, the Group made new investments amounting to 382 million Euro (5.3% of turnover), and 350 million of this amount was spent to strengthen the Group’s production activities. Besides the constant contributions to innovation, research and development, further investments were made in the fields of energy and environmental sustainability at Ferrero production sites in Italy, Germany, Poland and Belgium. The Group carried on its initiatives for the development of some of the poorest areas in the world according to the Ferrero Social Enterprises program.