snack Group Kft., the parent company of the Ferrero Group, approved the consolidated financial statement of the Group for the year ending 31 August 2010. On that date, the Group was comprised of seventy-four consolidated companies, with twenty production plants, of which three operate within the framework of the Social Enterprises. Ferrero products are present directly or through authorised distributors in over 160 countries.The Group, of which Giovanni Ferrero is the Chief Executive Officer, closed the financial year with a consolidated turnover of 8,412 million Euros, indicating an increase of 3.9% from the previous period, which closed with a total of 8,100 million Euros.Despite the difficulties faced internationally, this growth is the result of an extraordinary dynamism in the development of new markets: the sales of Ferrero products have matched and in some cases even improved from previous years results in Asia, Russia, United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey. The markets of the Middle East are also in a phase of strong growth.The results achieved in the core markets of the UK, Poland and Germany were good and in some cases excellent. Whilst those achieved in the principle markets of south Europe were substantially stable or slightly down, due to the effects of the economic crisis.In terms of products, particularly positive performances were seen by Kinder Joy (known as Kinder Merendero in Italy), Kinder Bueno, Kinder Surprise and Ferrero Rocher, which have helped the overall growth in various markets, with an increase in volumes of 29%, 10%, 9% and 6% respectively. Nutella and Tic Tac have also performed well.The Groups result this year, against a substantially stable operating income, presents an improved financial result, with a profit before tax of 907 million Euros (+14.2% compared to last year).The new investments made by Ferrero during the last financial year came to 537 million Euros, of which 458 million (5.4% of sales) was used t
