The Hindu Business Line : Cadbury `back on track' with new packaging

THE country's largest-selling chocolate manufacturer Cadbury India Ltd said here on Wednesday it is now back on the track with growth rates going back to the days before it received a setback in the market following large-scale complaints of infestation of its products in the market place last October.

It has imported machinery for auto-wrapping and put in place a new packaging system designed to keep infestation at bay and a comprehensive quality control audit that continuously monitors its retail network to ensure proper handling of products.

Senior company officials who spoke to reporters at its Indur plant, 50 km outside Pune city said the company, which recorded loss in sales of an estimated Rs 70 crore immediately after the peak-Diwali season reports of infestations of its products, is now showing healthy growth and said turnover this year will exceed Rs 720 crore it recorded last year.

"The incident affected the chocolate category as a whole but we are maintaining our 67-70 per cent marketshare," Mr Sharad Gangal, General Manager, HR, said.

The other players in the market comprise Nestle, which has an estimated 29 per cent share, and the remaining 1 per cent shared by Amul and a host of regional level players.

Armed with a new, air-tight packaging that is now exclusive to only Cadbury products in India and a system that trains its retailers and sales people on proper storage and handling of the product, the company is now revving up to sweeten up its sales with the onset of the festive season that begins with Raksha bandhan and continues till the New Year.

"We spent over Rs 8 crore in importing auto-wrappers for the new packaging, introduced new foil and poly-laminated packaging and have incurred over Rs 4.5 crore in additional input costs per annum and are now confident that the packaging is infestation-proof," Mr Gangal said.

The company has also, simultaneously, activated a consumer grievance redressal cell.The company now seems all set to pip competitionwith a first mover advantage in the white and brown chocolate combo category. It is in the process of launching the `two-in-one' in bar and marble form under its popular Dairy Milk brand.

The company is also seeking an entry into the fast-growing `bag snack' category with Bytes, a chocolate-inside-a wrapper-snack. While the two-in-one chocolate will be made at the 5.5 lakh capacity/day Indur plant, the wafer snack will be made at its Hyderabad and Warana plants and other multiple locations because of the fragile nature of the product.

Meanwhile, the company is in the process of setting up a new plant at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh which will initially manufacture 1,000 tonnes/day of its malt-based drink, Bournvita, Mr Gangal said. Cadbury already has three existing manufacturing facilities at Thane, Indur and Malanpur (Gwalior) in additional to third party operations.

The Pune plant manufactures 13,000 tonnes of `crumbs', that go into making chocolate at all its facilities. Cadbury India manufactures 17,000 tonnes of chocolate annually. Cadbury officials said the company sells 10 lakh bars of chocolate every day.

More Stories on : Standards & Benchmarks | Food & Dairy Products | Packaging

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