Mondelez India Foods Pvt Ltd. (formerly Cadbury India Ltd) is focussing on the Oreo brand and its variants to strengthen its presence in the Indian biscuit market, according to Sudhansu Nagpal, Associate Director - Marketing (Biscuits), Mondelez India.
“We forayed into the biscuit category in 2011 with Oreo and since then, India has emerged as one of the top three markets (after USA and China) for the brand by volume,” he told The Hindu .
Oreo’s launch in the cream biscuit segment was followed by the launch of Bournvita biscuits in 2016. In 2019, it launched Bournvita Banana & Oats in the breakfast segment.
In the choco-bakery segment, MIPL launched Oreo Cadbury-dipped, an innovation which the company termed a ‘cross pollination of its iconic chocolate and biscuit brands.’
“In India, we aim to take a bigger share of the estimated ₹36,000-crore biscuit market on the back of pushing Oreo and its variants,” he said.
Mr. Nagpal said that the company was among the top five players in the cream biscuit segment, which accounted for about 25% of the total organised biscuit market. Till June, it grew faster than industry rates with a 1.8% overall market share. The company, however, was not willing to comment on the impact of the slowdown.
While sales in urban areas have been the company’s strength, it forayed into the rural market 18 months ago with ₹5 and ₹10 packs, besides adding to the number of distribution points. “The ₹5 packs accounted for nearly 35% of the biscuit market by volume,” Mr. Nagpal said.
He said that in a brand extension exercise, Mondelez had tied up with ice cream brands to launch products like Cornetto-Oreo, offering “unconventional flavours and formats” in the biscuit category.
It has already launched products through such a partnership with Hindustan Unilever. The company has also drawn up plans to tap into the gifting segment during the festive season. This facility is available through e-commerce sites as well as the company’s website.
