Perfetti Van Melle India, known for brands such as Center fresh, Alpenliebe and Happydent, said that business is now almost back to pre-Covid levels due to higher in-home consumption trends visible even in impulse purchase categories. The confectionery major is strategically focusing on deepening its presence in rural regions and at the same time launching new products with a differentiated proposition to meet the evolving consumer needs.

Rajesh Ramakrishna, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India, said that the impulse purchase categories, such as confectionery, were more adversely impacted than other essential product categories in the initial months of the pandemic as out-of-consumption channels were hit.

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“But our affordable product price points and higher levels of home-stocking leading to higher in-home consumption enabled a faster recovery. Towards the end of 2020, we saw significant recovery trends and business is almost 90 per cent back to the pre-Covid levels,” he added.

Talking about evolving consumer trends, he said, “Consumers are increasingly gravitating towards trusted brands and seeking more value in terms of convenience such as family packs or larger packs, which are more attuned towards in-home consumption.”

Intense mints segment

With consumers seeking fortified products, last year the company launched Alpenliebe JuiCyfills, a liquid-filled candy with fruit juice and Vitamin C. Now, the company is launching Center fresh Clean Breath, which will be its first product in the intense mints segment, at a price point of ₹1 to drive penetration in India.

“While we were consciously working towards growing in-home consumption of our products even earlier, the pandemic has accelerated that trend. Our strategic intent is to get the price pack architecture right so that we provide relevant products to consumers at the right price points and facilitate stocking up at home to increase consumption of our products,” he said, adding that out-of-home consumption channels are also now seeing an uptick

Rural reach

Meanwhile, the company is also looking to ramp up the rural reach of its products. “We are doing quite a few experiments to grow our presence in rural markets. Currently, we are doing a pilot project with a partner in Maharashtra to take our products in villages where we don’t have coverage. We hope to take learnings from this to strengthen our presence in other rural regions too,” Ramakrishnan added.

Last year, the confectionery major also entered into strategic tie-ups with various aggregators and platforms including Ferns N Petals to leverage on the fast-growing e-commerce channel.

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