Candy giant Ferrero has opened an innovation center within a Chicago landmark, where the maker of well-known brands such as Keebler, Butterfinger, Nutella and Kinder plans to develop new products.
Ferrero this week celebrated the opening of the 44,357-square-foot space within the Marshall Field and Company Building in Chicago’s Loop business district.
It joins similar facilities by two other household names in the food industry, McDonald’s and Mars, that have been a bright spot in Chicago as tenants in many industries have pulled back since the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020. More recently, factors such as rising interest rates, corporate layoffs and other economic worries have contributed to sluggish real estate demand throughout the country.
Ferrero’s product innovations in the candy industry have included Nutella B-Ready, a snack popular in Europe that offers Nutella spread in bar form.
The new facility, first announced last year, brings together research-and-development teams from throughout the country and houses teams working on Keebler, Famous Amos, Mother’s, Fannie May and other products, the company said in a statement. There are more than 150 employees in the space.
"Our new Innovation Center and R&D Labs here in Chicago reflect Ferrero's rich heritage and will foster the creativity and culture that Ferrero is known for around the world," Alanna Cotton, president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America, said in the statement. "Investments like this help us create high-quality, innovative products that will become a special part of Americans’ lives and further drive category growth in confections, cookies and beyond."
Ferrero’s arrival is part of a string of recent leases in the redeveloped office property at 24 E. Washington St. by owner Brookfield Properties.
Brookfield bought the upper half of the longtime State Street department-store building from Macy’s for $27 million in 2018 and has invested in an extensive renovation to covert those seven floors into modern offices.
Other recently signed tenants include food ingredients supplier Olam International, which is taking 81,488 square feet, and logistics firm Spot, which is leasing 31,000 square feet.
The building was designed in several phases starting in the late 1800s. Initial portions of the building were designed by Daniel Burnham. The Marshall Field building is a Chicago landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Founded in Italy in 1946, Ferrero Group is now headquartered in Luxembourg.
Ferrero’s U.S. headquarters are in Parsippany, New Jersey. The company has more than 5,000 employees in the U.S., Canada and Caribbean.
The company makes several products in Illinois, including Butterfinger and Baby Ruth candy bars in suburban Franklin Park and Keebler products on the South Side of Chicago. A central Illinois plant in Bloomington manufactures Crunch and 100 Grand candy bars, and that campus will soon open a chocolate processing facility and a Kinder Bueno production facility.
Chicago-based Ferrara Candy, which is headquartered in the Old Post Office, was acquired by Ferrero in 2017. Ferrara Candy’s products include Lemonheads, Nerds, Atomic Fireballs and Laffy Taffy.
Other innovation centers in Chicago, announced last year, include Mars’ expansion of its facility on Goose Island on the city’s North Side to create its largest research and development hub and McDonald’s expansion of its global headquarters in Fulton Market, relocating innovation workers from suburban Romeoville, Illinois.