newly acquired gum brands.
The Cadbury brand was synonymous with chocolates in India. The company announced that it will strengthen its position in the confectionery sector and will launch some of their gum brands such as Trident, Dentyne, Bubbas and Chiclets in the near future.
Lotte Group
Lotte Group was one of the largest companies in Korea, with major interests in food, tourism and technology. The company was particularly well known for biscuits and confectionery, which was the initial focus of the business, and the company, had become a major exporter of chocolate and chewing gum. Their revenue from confectionery business was estimated to be $ 900 million in 2003.
Hershey Foods Corporation
Hershey Foods Corporation was an international company specializing in the manufacture, distribution and sale of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery, grocery products and consumer food products. Operations of Hershey Foods Corporation was concentrated in two divisions: Hershey Chocolate North America and Hershey International, which exported to over 90 countries worldwide. Hershey was the biggest confectioner in the U. S with handful of gum and mint products. Recently, Hershey announced the sale of a group of gum including Fruit Stripe chewing gum, Rain- Blo gum balls and Super Bubble gum to Farley ' s & Sathers Candy Co. Inc. This step was considered as a move by Hershey to try and focus on their chocolate products since they had already sold other non-chocolate candy brands in 2002. The major competitor to Hershey in imported segment was Mars.
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods was the largest branded food and beverage company in the US and the second largest in the world. Kraft sold its products in over 145 countries, and operated 228 manufacturing facilities around the world. Their best-selling brand was Oreo cookies. The growing trend toward healthier eating was taking a bite out of sales and profits at Kraft Foods and they were looking to do a major restructuring including selling off some brands. Their sugar confectionary brands like Life Savers mints and Altoids were also losing market in the U. S.
Perfetti Van Melle
Perfetti Van Melle was at $ 1.5 billion, world ' s third largest confectionery company. The Indian operations were second only to Italy ' s operations. A manufacturer and marketer of sugar based confectionery and a leader in the candy and gum segments, it was also the second largest company in the Perfetti group in terms of sales volumes world-wide.
Parle
Parle was a leader in manufacturing and marketing of cookies and confectionery in India. It manufactured and marketed cookies, sugar boiled confectionery, and cocoa and milk based toffees. Parle had 15 % market share in the total confectionery industry. Its brands were targeted at the lower and middle price segment. Parle had a strong distribution network with 1500 wholesalers, catering to 425,000 retail outlets directly and indirectly. Its confectionery business continued to remain a low growth segment as the focus was more on the cookies business.
ITC ITC Limited( ITCL) was the flagship company of the ITC conglomerate. ITC was India ' s largest manufacturer of cigarettes and tobacco products with an Agricommodity business and interests in greetings, gifting and stationery products, safety matches and essence sticks, hotels, paper board and specialty papers, packaging, information technology, lifestyle retailing and foods. During 2002, ITCL set-up a separate division for its foods business called ITC Foods. During 2002, ITC ' s Foods rolled out its maiden confectionery brand- Mint- O, which it had acquired from the Delhi-based Candico India Limited. During 2003, ITC Foods launched Candyman which targeted the less than 12 children segment. ITCL had strengths in terms of distribution of confectionery and was using its vast network of pan, cigarettes and beedi shops in India.
Hindustan Lever Limited Hindustan Lever Limited( HLL) was India ' s leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods( FMCG) company manufacturing and marketing soaps, detergents, household and personal care products, foods and chemicals, fertilizers and animal feed. HLL brand range included hard-boiled candies, toffees, mint candies and crackling candy, such as ChocoMax, MaxCream, MaxMint and MaxCrackler. All their products were priced at 25p, 50p and Rs. 2 and sold under the brand Max. HLL had plans to take its confectionery business to 400,000 outlets by the end of 2004 and was developing its exclusive distribution system for the confectionery business.
Candico India Candico India Limited was the only Indian MNC in this sector. It was the only company in India that manufactured all four categories of confectionery- candies, toffees, lozenges and gums- a strength it was using for serving the demands of national and international markets. It owned brands like FruttiTutti, Jucie Mango and Lacto in Confectionery, Big Bubble Gum, Time Bomb in gums, Elaichi Roll, Koffi Toffi in Toffees.
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