Logistics, the backbone of Ferrero France

How do brands such as Kinder Maxi, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher manage their logistics challenges? Each year, Ferrero France (€1.4 billion in revenue in 2022) delivers around 800 000 pallets to the French market. 

Grégory Debuchy is Supply Chain Director at Ferrero France. He outlines the group’s three main logistics hubs:  “A first site in Saint-Quentin Fallavier (Rhône) serves all of southern France; another, in Neuville-aux-Bois (Loiret), serves the central and eastern regions; and the Grand-Quevilly site (Seine-Maritime) serves the entire Normandy region. As for the brand’s fresh products, they are consolidated at a single storage location serving the entire country, in Darveau (Seine-et-Marne).” Its logistics operation is heavily affected by activity levels, which can vary by a factor of 4.5 between peak periods (Christmas, Easter) and low points (June). 

On the production side, the group has two factories in France: a site north of Rouen that produces Nutella—“quite simply the largest Nutella factory in the world”—and another in Nieppe, primarily for Delacre biscuits. These factories enable France to produce more than 30 % of Ferrero Group products, with the remainder imported from elsewhere in Europe: “Around 70 % of our volume comes from Italy for praline-based products or from Germany for snack products,” explains Grégory Debuchy. “For our part, we export our products to Spain, Portugal, Benelux and England.” 

For Grégory Debuchy, logistics and supply chain are closely linked and aim to achieve the group’s growth targets: “We define a marketing ambition, translated into sales targets, and those targets must be achieved through the supply chain.” It is an essential link supporting sales and marketing. Indeed, while logistics can be defined as the management of physical flows—inventory, storage and warehousing—the supply chain, according to its director, encompasses “activity management, sales forecasting and customer service-related activities.” 

This DNA of service, agility and resilience (zero Nutella stockouts during lockdown) makes the brand’s products safe bets for retailers. “In terms of performance, we express it in terms of volume and value. Although it has deteriorated slightly over the past year because of transport prices, it nevertheless remains a differentiating factor.” As a result, Ferrero offers a service level 1.7 % higher than the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) average. “When customers buy our products, they are delivered better than by our competitors,” says Ferrero France’s Supply Chain Director with satisfaction. “Logistics is part of how customers perceive their industrial supplier. We are committed to providing a higher level of service, through a value-generation project.” 

Ferrero France did not wait for constraints related to energy and transport costs to take measures to reduce its environmental impact: the group’s CSR strategy has been committed to this since the mid-2000s. “Over the past three years, we have reduced our carbon impact by 8.6 %, and we are targeting a further 6% reduction over the next three years,” says Grégory Debuchy. This reduction mainly concerns freight flows. Among the measures implemented? “CSR in Ferrero’s supply chain means, first and foremost, filling our trucks as fully as possible”—an outsourced fleet that varies according to the intensity of activity. Once this prerequisite has been met, the group can consider alternative transport modes, such as “our biscuits made in Italy that are transported by rail,” or work on “late customization,” meaning the late differentiation of products delivered in bulk and assembled into display boxes at the last minute, as close as possible to consumption points, to optimize available space. As for warehouses, while sourcing 100% renewable energy now seems a prerequisite for all logistics players, Ferrero France is also working on automation and robotics solutions, as well as raptor perches to prevent rodents in a more natural way than conventional traps. 

Among the challenges to overcome in pursuing the group’s ambitious environmental objectives is the potential shift of part of the truck fleet toward electric or hydrogen solutions, “despite major obstacles for the industry as a whole,” warns Grégory Debuchy. Sometimes innovation lies purely in the flow rather than the technology, as illustrated by the delivery of Ferrero’s entire product range by barge to its client Monoprix Paris since 2022. “We divide the environmental footprint for the Paris region by five. Of course, it is a very, very specific flow, but being a pioneer and innovating is part of our CSR policy. It is currently more expensive than truck transport, but we hope to help achieve a critical mass that will enable the rest of the flows to shift.” The choice is gaining traction, with several other customers expressing interest in receiving their orders by barge. A relevant option, all the more so just months ahead of the Olympic Games, when logistics flows are likely to be heavily constrained.