Mondelez India expects the biscuits category to become a strong pillar of growth in the long term, as it is expanding its product portfolio with the launch of Cadbury Bournvita Biscuits.

The company first forayed into the biscuits category with its premium product Oreo. Within five years of its launch, India has become among the top five markets for Oreo.

Mondelez is now looking for an even bigger success story with Bournvita Biscuits, which it has sharply positioned for morning consumption. It comes in two packs priced at ₹10 and ₹25.

The product will be on the shelves from May and will also soon be exclusively available on Snapdeal as part of the pre-launch strategy.

Chandramouli Venkatesan, Managing Director, Mondelez India Foods, told BusinessLine , “India is one of the major markets for biscuits and Mondelez is the world’s leading biscuits company. This is a big strategic launch for us.

“We evaluated that mornings are a big consumption occasion for biscuits and Bournvita is already a strong brand in the country. So we put the two together to launch Bournvita Biscuits, which gives Mondelez great access to the biggest consumption occasion for the category.”

He said that the company wanted the product to be accessible to the mainstream market.

Replying to a query on the Indian unit’s pace of growth, Venkatesan said, “Every country goes through its growth cycles…We are very bullish on India and we have continued to invest in the country and will not be affected by the economic cycles. We continue to launch innovations at both ends of the spectrum whether it’s mass or premium.”

He said that India is among the top ten priority markets for the company globally.

“India is not only contributing to the growth of Mondelez, but it is also offers tremendous future growth potential for the company. We are demonstrating this through our investments that we have made to enhance capacity, and expand cold-chain infrastructure,” he added.

New plant The company is set to launch a new plant in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh this month, which will be its largest manufacturing unit in Asia-Pacific. Speaking on a query on slowdown in rural demand, he said, “Countries and economies go through these cycles and we should be prepared for these cycles. It cannot determine our long-term strategies.

“But, there are good monsoon predictions for this year, which is very good for the rural economy.” The company has been focussing on an aggressive rural drive for the past few years.

Meanwhile, the company is going to back the launch of Bournvita Biscuits with a high decibel integrated marketing campaign and will aim to be being among the top five most advertised biscuits brands this year.

It proposes to conduct a wide sampling exercise.

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