Mondelez International is "cautiously optimistic" about its progress in China and believes it is taking the right steps amid a slowdown in the market affecting a number of its peers.
On an investor conference call held yesterday discussing Mondelez's second-quarter and first-half results, the company revealed its revenue in China grew more than 20% as a result of "strong execution in both biscuits and gum".
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Mondelez had a challenging year in China last year, when sales fell at what the company said at a time was a mid-single-digit rate. There was, Mondelez reflected in February, "continued softness" in its biscuit business.
FMCG companies with operations in China are seeing their businesses in the market come under investor and analyst scrutiny amid a slowdown in the country's economy.
Asked to reflect on China and consumption trends in the market, Rosenfeld said: "We know that some of our peers have had some challenges [in China]. We had challenges of our own as you recall back in 2013, and we very quickly have addressed them. We've taken a number of steps, aside from very closely monitoring inventory versus consumption. We've invested quite significantly in category growth in biscuits as well as in our innovation platforms. We've invested behind Oreo, behind the launch of Oreo Thins, which has been off to a terrific start. We've seen very nice improvement in our shares as a result of that, and we're seeing the biscuit category is starting to improve after quite some time of being essentially flat. We're also launching our Belvita product as we speak, and that will have a nice impact."
Looking at Mondelez's gum range in China, Rosenfeld the recently-launched Trident was "off to a very strong start".
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By GlobalDataShe said: "On the gum side I'm quite pleased with the performance. Stride continues to do well. We continue to innovate behind that franchise in terms of the launch of bottles and Stride Layers."
Broadly, Rosenfeld added: "A lot of the good work that's going on in China is our opportunity to control our own destiny by making sure that we have the adequate spending behind our franchises, as well as adequate strong innovation platforms.
"We're cautiously optimistic. We're continuing to keep our eye very closely on the dynamic in the market. But I think we've got our hands firmly on the key levers that will help to fuel our business."
