56 Chocolate Fortunes
example, taking more care to ensure proper rotation of stock
in warehouses throughout the supply chain.
As Ferrero became more established in China, it sought
other ways to make its operations there more economical. For
instance, most of the Ferrero Rocher SKUs
4
sold in China
were the sixteen- and twenty-four-piece gift boxes. The two
key components of the box—the clear plastic box top and the
brown opaque bottom—could be produced less expensively in
China than in Europe. Consequently, as China became a
major worldwide exporter of packaging materials, it made no
sense for Ferrero to buy packaging made in China, ship it to
Italy to be packed by expensive European labor only to be
shipped back to Hong Kong, China, and other Asian Pacific ...