On 21 November 2018, Reuters reported that Barilla was preparing to move directly against Nutella with a new chocolate spread, Crema Pan di Stelle, in a challenge aimed first at Italy and potentially beyond.
The family-owned pasta maker, best known for spaghetti and maccheroni in blue boxes, was said to be readying the product for launch as early as January in Italy. Sources familiar with the plan said Barilla wanted to exploit a weakness often raised against Nutella: its use of palm oil.
That ingredient has long drawn criticism from consumers worried about health and environmental issues. Ferrero responded to that backlash with a 2016 advertising campaign defending palm oil, saying it was safe when refined at controlled temperatures and that the company sourced it only from sustainable plantations.
Nutella remains the dominant force in the category. The spread, invented by Ferrero, generates annual sales of more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) and holds 54 percent of the global chocolate spread market, according to Euromonitor International. Turkey’s Cokokrem, owned by Yildiz Holding, is a distant second with just 2 percent.
According to two sources familiar with Barilla’s thinking, the company’s decision also reflected a broader commercial clash. They said Ferrero had begun pushing into Barilla’s biscuit business, which Barilla sees as a smaller but important part of its portfolio.
Industry sources said Ferrero was planning a Nutella-filled biscuit for the following year, a product viewed as a direct challenge to Barilla’s Baiocchi chocolate cookie brand. Ferrero declined to comment on the new biscuit.
Barilla’s proposed spread is expected to lean on different ingredients and a different sales pitch. One source said the recipe includes sunflower oil, 10 percent less sugar, Italian-only hazelnuts and cocoa from sustainable farms.
Barilla has already shown the product to buyers at major supermarket chains, but winning shelf space will not be easy. One industry expert said it could cost several million euros just to secure a place beside Nutella, which typically gets a premium eye-level position in stores.
Marco Eccheli, director at the Italian unit of AlixPartners, said: “Crema Pan di Stelle will increase competition for Nutella in Italy thanks to the considerable brand awareness it has among domestic customers, but Barilla will find it difficult to take the challenge abroad,”
Barilla said it would answer questions about new products in the coming weeks. The name Crema Pan di Stelle comes from Pan di Stelle, one of its better-known biscuit brands sold mainly in Italy. One source said the spread would include crumbles of Pan di Stelle cookies to give it a crunchy texture.
The Reuters report also noted that Barilla’s move came as the company sought to defend its own biscuit business while taking aim at a product that has become one of Ferrero’s most recognizable global brands.
