The company speaks of a "quality defect"
The Ferrero group has decided to "temporarily suspend for production" the production of its first Nutella plant in Normandy, after identifying a "quality defect", the company announced.
"At this time, we can confirm that this does not concern any of our products currently on the market and that our customers' supply continues uninterrupted," Ferrero France's press service added.
The closure of the plant in Villar-Eckal (Saint-Maritime region) "will allow investigations to be carried out, the results of which will be known by the end of the week, and will allow us to take corrective measures," the French subsidiary said. of the Italian family group.
"On Tuesday, February 19, at 18.00, while reading the results of one of the quality controls at our Wheeler-Ekal factory, we found a defect in the quality of one of the semi-finished products used to produce our Nutella and Kinder Bueno products," he explains. Ferrero. "This defect does not meet our quality standards, so we decided to temporarily suspend the activity of the factory," the company added.
According to the APE-MPE, the plant in Wheeler-Ekal is the first production unit of Nutella worldwide, which is a hazelnut praline spread that contains 56,3% sugar and 30,9% fat. It produces 600.000 jars per day, which is one third of world production.
The Ferrero group has doubled its turnover in ten years to over € 10 billion. It has 22 production sites and employs more than 30.000 people.