MONDELEZ Philippines, Inc. is seeing a huge room for its biscuits and chocolates product category to grow in the local market and catch up with its two-thirds share in the company’s portfolio in many overseas markets, its local head said.
“Our biscuits and chocolates [product category] is not yet anywhere near the global standards of two-thirds [of our portfolio],” said Aishish N. Pisharodi, Mondelez country head for the Philippines, in a recent interview.
“So it’s a big opportunity… if we can get our biscuits and chocolates here to also be two-thirds of our portfolio,” he added.
At present, he said that category accounts for about a third of the company’s local sales, which is dominated by its core product categories, namely cheeses under the Eden and Kraft brands, and beverages, with Tang’s growing number of flavors.
“We are aspiring to be market leader for cookies in the Philippines,” Mr. Pisharodi said.
Mondelez recently introduced to the market a new Oreo product, a thin and crispy version of its sandwich cookies with vanilla and tiramisu flavors.
In the Philippines, biscuits sales are growing at 7-8% a year, based on the company’s assessment, a growth that Mondelez has to surpass to maintain its market share.
“For cookies, Oreo is our biggest brand already but for the category to be a market leading cookie we need to grow both the core and use this new innovation [Oreo Thins] to drive the growth,” said Mr. Pisharodi, who has moved to the Philippines in 2011.
Thus far, market response to the new product is strong, drawing so-called millennials who have grown up knowing the regular Oreo cookies but have been re-introduced to their thinned and crunchy version.
“We’re gaining market share within biscuits in the Philippines, but we want to keep going and become leaders just like we are market leaders in our core categories,” the Mondelez country manager said.
“All these innovations will play a role to help us to get there because they speed up the growth. So if you have an innovation, then if your core is growing at, let’s say 20%, and the innovation adds another 5-10% of growth, that really helps you to kind of garner a larger share of the market,” Mr. Pisharodi said.
Previously known as Kraft Foods Philippines, Mondelez Philippines has been in business in the country since 1963. It has provided consumers with snack products such as Chips Ahoy!, Tang powdered beverages, Eden cheese, mayonnaise and sandwich spread, Cheez Whiz spread, Oreo cookies, Toblerone and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates.
The company has a manufacturing plant in Parañaque and employs around 400 people. It is the local unit of US-listed Mondelez International, Inc. — Victor V. Saulon
