Chicago, which has given rise to everything from the coffee maker and mobile phone to the Ferris wheel and now a new pope, is about to add another potentially groundbreaking development to its legacy: Nutella Peanut.
The first new version of Nutella’s iconic hazelnut spread in its 60-year history is set to roll out next year from Italian candy giant Ferrero, with Chicago at the center of its plans.
Developed over five years by Ferrero’s food scientists, Nutella Peanut will be made exclusively at its west suburban Franklin Park factory. Ferrero will invest $75 million in the plant and create 65 jobs to produce the hazelnut, peanut and chocolate mashup, the company said.
“We think it’s going to be big,” said Seth Gonzalez, senior director of marketing for Nutella. “We do plan on it becoming a significant part of the portfolio going forward, and so we hope that consumers will get behind it and come try it out.”
Nutella fans with a hankering for peanuts may have to wait a little bit, however.
The former Nestle plant, which Ferrero acquired in 2018, also makes peanut-packed Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars, giving it a leg up to produce the new peanut-flavored spread, Gonzalez said. The plant is being retooled to add the first Nutella production line in the U.S. by January. Nutella Peanut is expected to hit store shelves in April 2026.
The made-in-Chicago creation — adding peanuts to a hazelnut spread with cocoa that has remained unchanged since its introduction in 1964 — will be marketed to the North American palate, where peanut butter is, of course, a staple.
But Nutella Peanut will retain the distinctively Euro flavor of the original spread.
“We didn’t want it to be another peanut butter,” Gonzalez said. “There’s a reason why cocoa is still connected as a peanut-and-cocoa formula, instead of just peanuts. It’s more afternoon snacking than lunch, for example.”
Ferrero will unveil Nutella Peanut, along with Ferrero Rocher chocolate squares and other innovations beginning Tuesday at the Sweets & Snacks Expo, an annual event born in Chicago, which is taking place this year in Indianapolis.
The new products represent the New World ambitions of the 80-year-old Ferrero, which in recent years has acquired several Chicago candy-makers, while introducing its European brands to the U.S.
“Developing Nutella and Ferrero Rocher products specifically for the North American market represents a defining moment in our company’s history,” Michael Lindsey, president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America, said in a news release.
Founded in 1946 as a small pastry shop in Alba, Italy, privately held Ferrero is now the third-largest confectionery company in the world, with production plants across five continents and more than 47,500 employees.
Its legacy international products, including Nutella, Kinder and Ferrero Rocher, have been gaining traction in the U.S. in recent years, along with its growing portfolio of domestic brands.
Brought to the U.S. in the 1980s, Nutella’s biggest market remains Europe.
“Nutella is the peanut butter of their market,” Gonzalez said.
Nutella revenue in the U.S. is up 8.8% year-over-year, and has grown by 88% since 2020, bolstered by the introduction of two new products — Nutella Biscuits and Nutella B-ready, the company said. Currently, Nutella products for the U.S. market are made at plants in Canada and Mexico.
But Chicago will become the nexus of North American manufacturing for Nutella Peanut.
“It’s just a great hub of food and treats and snacks, manufacturing and marketing, and there’s just a lot of great talent there and great technology infrastructure,” said Hugh McMullen, a Ferrero USA spokesperson. “And it’s been exciting to grow in Chicago and in the state of Illinois.”
Ferrero has built a significant footprint in Illinois, assembling a number of candy brands, investing in plants and growing to more than 1,700 employees at manufacturing, office and retail locations across the state.
In 2017, Ferrero bought century-old Chicago candy-makers Ferrara and Fannie May. The following year, it substantially broadened its U.S. portfolio and Illinois footprint with the $2.8 billion acquisition of Nestle’s U.S. confectionery business, adding such brands as Butterfinger, Baby Ruth and Crunch, as well as factories in Bloomington, Franklin Park and Itasca.
Ferrero, whose U.S. headquarters are in Parsippany, N.J., has invested significantly in its Illinois properties, including $285 million in two expansions at its Bloomington plant, which makes everything from Crunch to Kinder Bueno, a European favorite introduced in the U.S. six years ago.
On the retail front, Ferrero opened its first Nutella Cafe eight years ago on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, serving such dishes as waffles and crepes topped with the hazelnut chocolate concoction. A Nutella Peanut menu item will be coming to the cafe next year, Gonzalez said.
In 2023, Ferrero launched its North American research and development facility at the Marshall Field building on State Street, where workers once minted Frangos on the 13th floor before the candies were outsourced to a Pennsylvania company at the dawn of the new millennium and the department store became Macy’s. Chicago-based Garrett Brands, the owner of Garrett Popcorn Shops, bought the Frango chocolate brand from Macy’s in 2018.
The Ferrero candy scientists have since created a number of innovations in the Chicago lab including new Butterfinger flavors — salted caramel and marshmallow — along with Crunch White and three new Keebler Chips Deluxe varieties.
While Nutella Peanut was developed at Ferrero’s Alba, Italy, research center, the breakthrough may have a big impact in Chicago. If the Nutella Peanut launch is successful, the Franklin Park factory will likely be expanded to handle increased production and diversification to other Nutella products, Gonzalez said.
“We’ll have to invest in a factory that already deals with peanuts, which means we’re going to need more lines and expansion of our current facilities,” Gonzalez said. “That’s the goal.”
