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Mondelez forays into cakes as it bets on a rise in home-snacking

2 min read . Updated: 01 Jul 2020, 07:55 AM IST Suneera Tandon

The new products will be available on Grofers and will subsequently be rolled out across modern and general trade

NEW DELHI : Mondelez International, formerly Kraft Foods, and the maker of Cadbury chocolates, on Tuesday announced its entry into the over ₹2,000-crore packaged cakes market, as it expects in-home consumption of snacks to surge as people remain indoors due to the pandemic and subsequent restrictions on people’s movement.

The newly launched Cadbury Chocobakes, priced at ₹10 and ₹60 for a single and multi-pack, respectively, will be available on Grofers and will subsequently be rolled out across modern and general trade, said Sudhanshu Nagpal, associate director, marketing (biscuits), Mondelez.

Mondelez, which also owns the Oreo cookies and Bournvita health drink brands, was a late entrant in India’s biscuit market, but has slowly built a strong portfolio since 2011.

Nagpal said the company has kept the launch of the new category intact, considering that consumers are staying indoors, which has drummed up demand for packaged snacks, including biscuits and noodles. “We continue to be bullish on the snacking opportunity. The importance of snacking will go up as consumers spend more time indoors and be more cautious of what they are putting in their mouth," he said.

Since March-end, biscuits have witnessed a strong off-take, said Nagpal, corroborating demand trends seen by rival Britannia Industries Ltd and Parle Products Pvt. Ltd, which reported record growth in sales of their biscuit brands.

Overall, the FMCG market, barring essentials, is expected to grow at just 5-6% in FY20.

“We decided we will not hold back on our plans and further step on the pedal to ensure right snacks reach the consumers," Nagpal said. “We are going back to the investment mode. All our brands are back on air and we will make big moves as we go along with a select few launches."

Rival Britannia, too, sold more packs of biscuits in April and May, posting 20% and 28% growth in sales, respectively.

On Tuesday, Vinay Subramanyam, head of marketing, Britannia Industries, said its popular brand Marie Gold grew by “leaps and bounds". The brand’s marketing plans and launches for the year were intact, he said.

“We don’t want to pause our plans, that is, through ads on television and digital," he said.

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