ITC steps up play in Rs 11,000-cr chocolate market with a dozen launches

Plans to play in the entire segment including chocolates, cookies, wafers and spreads to give customers a differentiated experience

Diversified conglomerate ITC is looking to grab a bigger bite of the Rs 11,000-crore chocolate segment in the country with over a dozen launches in the category for the festive season.

The company plans to play in the entire segment of the chocolate category including chocolates, chocolate cookies, wafers and spreads to give customers a differentiated experience and make a profitable business out of this segment for the cigarettes-to-biscuits maker. 

“As Indian chocolate consumption grows, it will increasingly contribute to the topline and bottomline to the foods and FMCG business of ITC. Currently it is a very small part of our business,” said Anuj Rustagi, Chief Operating Officer, Chocolates, Confectionary, Coffee and New Categories Food Division, ITC.

It currently has the Fabelle brand in luxury chocolates, Sunfeast Dark Fantasy in chocolate biscuits and Candyman Fantastic Treat in chocolate wafers offering. It has recently entered the Rs 2,500 crore cake segment with The Kolkata headquartered company on Tuesday launched a unique earth positive chocolate variant with zero carbon footprint called Fabelle La Terre. It is made up of only two locally sourced ingredients namely cocoa and honey. 

While the company currently has 14 chocolate boutiques across the country to sell its luxury chocolates range, it is also tapping in the wider range of retail touch points of ITC to sell its Fabelle chocolates. The company currently is utilising a network of 10,000 retail outlets to sell its range of chocolates.

The company is investing heavily in smart infrastructure to reach a wider number of general trade channels such as controlled supply chains with coolers that can supply cooling even without electricity and ability to monitor the temperature of its cooling chain through an IoT network. “Once we perfect this model, we will expand further in the general trade segment,” said Rustagi. The sales of Fabelle chocolates have gone up by five times post Covid on e-commerce platforms, he said.

In the current scenario, unique platforms have also become the catalyst to drive luxury business, of which one was ITC’s Store on Wheels. Leveraging the initiative, Fabelle has reached out to around 600-700 consumer locations and at least 10,000 consumers. "We still continue to operate with this model in select locations," said Rustagi.