Cadbury and Oreo maker Mondelez International has created an innovation unit in Australia to target changing consumer habits.
The unit will look at developing new products and routes to market amid demand for healthier, more convenient products, The Australian Financial Review reported.
“We’ve set up a growth team outside the business looking specifically from an agile mindset around what are some of those white-space growth opportunities we want to go after, where and how are these platforms going to be unlocked – is it own manufacturing, is it co-manufacturing – how do we become more nimble in bringing those products to life,” Nigel Parsons, the managing director of Mondelez’s business in Australia, told the newspaper.
“We are interested in understanding partnerships and joint ventures where we don’t have the internal capability or portfolio to go after an opportunity quickly.”
Asked by just-food if Mondelez’s Australian business would use the unit to make investments in other businesses, a spokesperson said: “With regards to the innovation hub – we’re not setting any firm parameters at this point – it would depend on the opportunity.”
In October, Mondelez launched a global unit, SnackFutures, to try to capitalise on changing consumer trends in the global snacking market.
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By GlobalDataAt the time, Mondelez said it hoped the unit would generate an additional US$100m in revenue by 2022. Mondelez posted net revenues of around $26bn for 2017.
The Australian Financial Review said the unit in Australia was separate to the SnackFutures division.
