Italian family owned confectionery maker Ferrero said on Thursday it had bought Fannie May, a US high-end chocolate producer which also owns the Harry London gourmet brand. This is the privately-held Ferrero's fourth acquisition in little over a year and a half, and is worth about $115 million. It follows its buy of Turkey's Oltan (a leading producer of nuts), Britain's Thorntons (chocolate) and the Belgian firm Delacre (biscuits), which have all joined the group in recent months.

Fannie May brings with it a commercial network of about 80 shops, all in Illinois, a production plant in Ohio – the first for the Ferrero Group in the US seeing as the company manufactures its products for the US market in Canada – and about 750 staff that will flank the 225 Ferrero already has in the US, in particular in its two offices in New Jersey, as well as 500 seasonal workers.