‘India’s first aerated chocolate’: Mondelēz brings bubbly platform to fastest growing emerging market

The company’s Indian subsidiary Mondelēz India Foods Private Limited introduced the new product under its Dairy Milk Silk brand last week.

‘Market making opportunity’​

Prashant Peres, director of marketing for chocolates at Mondelēz India, said: “As category leaders we see a market making opportunity with Bubbly, which has been a huge success for Cadbury Dairy Milk in many other countries.”​

“...The next few years will be exciting for us, especially with India's chocolate market poised to be one of the fastest in the world. We see this as a huge opportunity to expand our chocolate footprint within the country,”​ he said.

Indian chocolate: Factfile

Fiscal 2014 values sales​: $966m
Fiscal 2019 forecast​: $2bn
Dark chocolate:​ 9% of sales
Milk chocolate:​ 75% of sales
Annual Per capita consumption​: 120 g (up from 50 g in 2005)
[Source: ValueNotes]​

Mondelēz: Indian chocolate dominance​

India was the world's fastest growing chocolate confectionery market in value sales from 2010 to 2015 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.2%, according to Euromonitor International data. [See HERE​​ for the world's top 10 fastest growing chocolate markets]

A recent report by ValueNotes​​ forecasts a CAGR in India’s $966m chocolate market of 16% up 2019, driven by the premium sector and dark chocolate as disposable income grows.

Mondelēz is the Indian chocolate market leader with a 62% share, followed by Nestlé on 18% and Mars on 6%, according to ValueNotes.

Mondelēz grew mid-single digits in India in the first quarter (Q1) of 2015​​  and its Cadbury Dairy Milk market share topped 40%, its highest ever. The company’s chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld said during the firm's Q1 earnings call that Indian chocolate growth had been hampered by a recent round of wholesale price increases, but she said Mondelez expected the category to improve throughout the year.

Price points & marketing push​

Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk Bubbly is manufactured using Mondelēz’s Aerimelt Technology and is formed with small bubbles on the outside and also contains bubbles inside.

Mondelēz will introduce two sizes priced at Rs. 70 ($1) and Rs. 160 ($2.50).

The launch will be supported by a TV commercial and digital marketing campaign to target the brand’s core target audience: youth.

Bubbly innovation platform​

Bubbly was named one of Mondelēz’s innovation platforms​​ – along with chocobakery, bitesize and hollow-wafer - when the company formed after a split from Kraft Foods in 2012.

The firm launched Cadbury Dairy Milk Bubbly in the UK in 2012 to steal market share from Nestlé’s aerated chocolate brand Aero. Mondelēz later moved the Cadbury bubbly bar into South Africa and launched bubbly SKUs under its Milka brand in Germany, Austria and France, under its Lacta brand in Brazil and via Alpen Gold in Russia.

Irene Rosenfeld said during the company’s Q1 2015 earnings call: “Within chocolate, we've got continued terrific response in Bubbly and Marvellous Creations and you'll see us expanding those.”​

The company said earlier this year that Marvellous Creations would be its next global innovation platform​​ and expands revenues of $500m from Marvellous Creations variants by 2018.

Mondelēz will report its second quarter (Q2) results on Thursday next week.