The joint chief executive of Ferrero Rocher has been killed in a cycling accident in South Africa.
Pietro Rocher, aged 47, was the grandson of the company's founder - who shared the same name - and was in line to inherit the family business along with his brother, Giovanni.
Ferrero Rocher is the company behind brands such as Nutella, Kinder and the Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
A statement on the company website, headed "Forever with us", comments:
The Ferrero Group offers its most heartfelt thanks to the many people who joined the family in mourning the tragic and devastating loss of Pietro Ferrero, joint Chief Executive of the Group alongside his brother Giovanni.
Pietro Ferrero was taken from us while he was completing a highly important humanitarian mission, a mission he himself had planned and wished from the start, and which the Group has been intent on running for some years: Ferrero Social Enterprise initiatives.
