Current Mondelēz vice president for chocolate in Northern Europe, Glenn Caton, will take the reigns for the entire region from Mary Barnard, who becomes chocolate category president for Mondelēz Europe.
Barnard joined Mondelēz from PepsiCo in March 2014.
In his new role, Caton will oversee company brands such as Oreo, Cadbury and belVita in Demark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the UK and Ireland.
He joined Mondelēz in August 2013 as director for the chocolate category in the UK following previous roles at Direct Wines UK, Hiscox and Proctor & Gamble.
UK innovation and share performance
The company said he had helped grow Cadbury Dairy Milk in the UK and Ireland and in his last role had driven performance of Marabou Chocolate in Sweden and Norway’s Freia Chocolate.
Mondelēz told ConfectioneryNews it was the chocolate category leader in the UK market with a 36.5% share, based on IRI data for the week ending July 17.
The company also said it leads the UK’s £1.8bn ($2.4bn) sugar confectionery market, according to Nielsen figures up to March 19.
“Mondelēz International sharing bags have had a great year thanks to continuous innovation,” said a spokesperson at the Oreo maker.
“The company brought another hero brand to the category with the launch of Cadbury Dinky Deckers in August and created the perfect partnership in February with the launch of Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons, which is already worth £4.7m ($6.2m) retail sales value,”
Last month the company launched Trebor Mighties to the UK market and also introduced two NPDs for Maynards and Bassetts after the brands joined forces in February, including the first adult chew candy - Maynards Bassetts Juicy Chews.
Mondelēz has also upped UK ad spend for Cadbury this year by £10m ($13.2m) with promotions such as an on-pack offer for 2 for 1 entry to the UK attractions through a partnership with Merlin Entertainments.
Europe performance
Mondelēz posted a 26.5% decline in reported net revenues in Europe in Q2 this year to $2bn, which represented negative organic growth of 0.1%.
Europe accounts for around a third of company sales and is the firm’s biggest sales region ahead of North America.
Company CFO Brian Gladden said during the company’s Q2 conference call in July: “Organic revenue in Europe was essentially flat, although here too we're seeing a nice progression in vol/mix and share trends. Both our chocolate and biscuit categories delivered strong results in the UK and Germany, which helped grow vol/mix by 70 basis points for the region."
CEO Irene Rosenfeld said on the same call that “it is our intent to continue to price to offset higher input costs”.
She said Mondelēz usually took a hit by being the first industry player to raise prices, but had seen a recovery in chocolate share performance in the UK after she said consumers had adjusted to pricing introduced last year.
In other news....Mondelēz to tackle the US Market alone with Milka Oreo after failed Hershey bid.