Mondelez India to enter into food business

Mondelez India which was earlier Cadbury India has crossed Rs 5,000 crore revenue mark last fiscal, more than doubling sales in three years after investing heavily in sales and route-to-market expansion, according to a report published in Economic Times.

The company has also posted 23 per cent income growth at Rs 5,324 crore for the year ended December 2013, at a time when the overall consumer market grew in single digit including global peers Nestle, GSK Consumer and Hindustan Unilever.

The company's profit after tax rose 64 per cent to Rs 498 crore. Mondelez invested $200 million to build the country's largest chocolate manufacturing plant near Hyderabad.

"In addition, we have invested close to $190 million over last three years towards brownfield expansion," said a spokesperson.

Mondelez has launched new products which includes luxury brand Cadbury Glow, liquid centre-filled chocolate tablet Silk Caramello and 5 Star Chomp. The company said its market share in its largest category, chocolates has increased for nine consecutive quarters while beverages now account for a fifth of its overall sales after expanding Tang.

Mondelez dominates the Rs 6,832 crore Indian chocolate market with 70 per cent share with Ferrero at almost 8 per cent market share in the market while Nestle holds around 18 per cent.

Mondelez is keen to change its Indian arm from a core chocolates company into a complete foods player. "In our minds we have a specific timeframe for Mondelez India to move from a chocolates company to a foods company," Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO of Mondelez International, had told ET in an exclusive interview in August.