Mondelez International aims to push up India revenue to $2 billion by 2030

Mondelez International expects its India revenues to grow by 10-11 per cent per year. This could make the company report $2 billion revenue by 2030.

In 2021, the maker of Cadbury Dairy Milk reported a revenue of $1.2 billion in India.

In the previous calendar year, Mondelez International’s India business grew at 21 per cent due to the pandemic and is higher than its growth rate in the last three years. Its average growth rate for the last three years stood at 11 per cent.

“We just made a plan looking at the future of the company for the next 10 years up to 2030. We believe that India in that plan will play a phenomenal role, having double-digit growth per year. The importance of India for us as a company will keep on increasing,” said Dirk Van De Put, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mondelez International, at a roundtable conference with reporters.

The company is aiming to hit $2 billion revenue in India by 2030.

The chocolate maker is focused on increasing its penetration in the Indian market as 80 per cent of its sales in the country come through the traditional channel.

It sees a huge opportunity to double its store reach, which stands at around 3 million. Lower price-point packs, which are priced at Rs 5 and Rs 10, are important for Mondelez in India. This is because its local brands like 5 Star and Gems will play an important role to develop the rural market for the company. It has also installed 300,000 coolers at stores in India between 2018 and 2021 as it helps keep its products at lower temperatures.

The company’s domestic business sees 17 per cent of its revenues come from modern trade and 3 per cent from the digital channel.

Van De Put also said, “The digital commerce is of course growing very fast. It's only 3 per cent of our business, but in the end that's not too bad. Globally, it's at 6 per cent and in India, it's growing really fast.”

Its Oreo brand of biscuits has touched $100 million in India and the company has a 2 per cent market share in the biscuit segment in the country.

It is also using the Cadbury brand to enter the biscuit segment with Choco bakery products and cakes. It will use the Bournvita brand in the biscuit segment.

Mondelez is also constantly investing in India and has been adding lines every year to increase production. But the company is also open to acquiring an Indian firm.

Van De Put said, “There is always the positive potential that we would acquire an Indian company, which would be a massive investment in the country’s market.”

On the innovation front, the company sees 10 per cent of its sales come from new innovations. It typically has 10 big launches every year.

Inflation has globally been inching up through all of 2021. Van De Put said that inflation continues through 2022 as well. “For 2022, the pace of increasing cost compared to 2021 is not slowing down. In fact, in our case, it's slightly higher.”

He also said that Ukraine supplies 30 per cent of the world’s grains, and if supplies get interrupted, inflation could go up.