News

Mondelēz updates on strategy

20 Sep 2016

Mondelēz International has updated investors on its strategies to accelerate growth, including what it described as a major foray into both the mainstream and premium segments of the U.S. chocolate category.

At the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference, Mondelēz International updated investors on its strategies to accelerate growth, including what it described as a major foray into both the mainstream and premium segments of the U.S. chocolate category with its Oreo and Green & Blacks brands.

“Our advantaged platform positions us as one of the few industry players with the assets and ambition to deliver strong, sustainable growth on both the top and bottom lines, while we also return significant cash to our shareholders,” said Brian Gladden, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Since the launch of the company in October 2012, Mondelēz International has delivered total shareholder return of 72 percent, which has outpaced both the S&P 500 and its consumer staples peers.

Gladden underscored several of the company’s recent achievements, including increasing marketing support behind Power Brands, improving net productivity to world-class levels and significantly reducing overheads, thanks to zero-based budgeting and the expansion of a global shared services capability.

Tim Cofer, Chief Growth Officer, provided an update on the company’s strategies to accelerate revenue growth, which he said centre on contemporising the core portfolio through fearless marketing and well-being snacks, filling key consumer and geographic white spaces, and driving sales and channel ubiquity, especially through e-commerce.

Mondelēz International said it has also made well-being a priority and is on pace to become the global leader in well-being snacks by 2020. To reach this goal, the company says it is simplifying and enhancing the ingredient and nutritional profile of its base business while also introducing breakthrough innovations. For example, the company’s Wholesome Thins platform, which includes Oreo Thins, Chips Ahoy! Thins, Ritz Crisp & Thin and Good Thins biscuits, will surpass $300 million in sales this year, only two years after the launch of the platform in China.

To continue to fill geographic white spaces, Mondelēz International announced what it described as a major expansion into the U.S. chocolate market, where the company has only a small presence today.

“With our strong brands and global expertise in chocolate, we see enormous potential to grow our U.S. business and expand the category,” Cofer said. “The U.S. is the world’s largest chocolate market, valued at $14 billion. However, per capita consumption is only about half that of many developed European chocolate markets.”

In the mainstream segment, the company is pairing Oreo with Milka. Mondelēz said that this unique cross-category innovation is already a proven global success, available today in over 20 countries, where it has delivered new buyers to the category and velocities that are more than double the category average.

In the premium segment, Mondelez International is dramatically expanding its Green & Blacks offering, maintaining, it says, the brand’s heritage of providing the finest ingredients from sustainable and ethical sources. The new Green & Blacks range will feature 70% dark chocolate in tablets as well as sharing and gift packs. The recipe sustainably sources cocoa through the Cocoa Life program, and contains no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.