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Nutella produced from Italy, priced at 6.25 BAM ($4.20), are displayed for sale at a FIS supermarket in Vitez March 13, 2012. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Michele Ferrero, billionaire owner of Nutella chocolate and hazelnut spread, has died at the age of 89. He died on the world’s considered sweetest day, Valentines Day.

Ferrero had been ill for several months now. He died Saturday in Montecarlo where he lived, his company, the Ferrero Group, said in a statement. His survivors include his wife, Maria Franca and son Giovanni.

Regarded as Italy's richest man, Ferrero owns a global chocolate and confectionery empire that has a reported sales record of around 8 billion euros (AU$18 billion). But with his death, people in the family-controlled Ferrero group would need to look for a successor. The death of the world's wealthiest chocolatier “opens the question of succession and potential tie-ups,” Reuters wrote.

The famous chocolate-hazelnut Nutella spread was the invention of Pietro, Ferrero’s father, a smalltime pastry maker. Nutella started during the World War II, at a time when cocoa was still being rationed. Pietro’s first chocolate laboratory was launched in 1942 in Alba, in Italy’s northwest Piemonte region. The business automatically was passed on to Michele upon his death seven years later.

Succeeding years saw the younger Ferrero launching Kinder chocolates in 1968, Tic Tacs in 1969 and Ferrero Rocher in 1982. It wasn’t long when the Ferrero Rocher chocolates invaded Europe. By 1985, the United States had its first taste of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

Michele Ferrero had long handed the company business to his two sons, Pietro and Giovanni, in 1997. Unfortunately, Pietro Ferrero died of a cardiac arrest in 2011, leaving Giovanni the sole CEO of the company.

A report by the AFP said Ferrero manufactures 365,000 tonnes of Nutella annually in its 11 global factories. Germany is its biggest market, followed by France and Italy. The Ferrero group has over 22,000 workers around the world. Forbes, in 2013, estimated Ferrero’s family wealth at $20.4 billion (14.9 billion euros).

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