The Financial Times has notified that Mondelēz is thinking of acquiring a number of healthy snack brands over the next five years, as the proportion of health conscious consumers is increasing and government is appealing actions to control obesity.
The food giant, whose portfolio comprises of Cadbury chocolate, Toblerone and Oreos cookies, acclaimed that it has been committed to lessen salt, sugar, and saturated fat in its products, as well as alleviating calories from children’s confectionery.
The US-based brand experienced prosperity during lockdown as people turned towards comfort foods like chocolate and biscuits, but its sweets and gum brands (usually bought ‘on the go’) witnessed a decreased sale.
In the UK, 2nd largest market of Mondelēz’s, the government recently planned and disclosed tighter anti-obesity action plans, such as a banning telecast of ads for food rich in fat, sugar and salt before 9pm.
“We sell a variety of products but some of them are more indulgent products where the consumer, if eating too many of them, could face obesity,” CEO Dirk Van de Put informed.
He further said- “We feel it’s the right task to do. . . to aware the consumers make conscious decisions about what they consume and educate them. It’s something that our shareholders, our investors, our employees also urge, that we do the right thing as a company.”
Mondelēz acquired US-based Perfect Snacks, which manufactures protein bars, for $284m in 2019. It also bought baked products manufacturer, Give & Go at $1.1bn.
Luca Zaramella, Mondelēz’s chief financial officer, told that the company anticipated to assign its investments in coffee companies JDE Peet’s and Keurig Dr Pepper in an effort to spend a chunk of the proceeds on newer acquisitions.
He further added- “Importantly we have $10bn-worth of coffee stakes sitting on our balance sheet . . . The plan we have is to transform those coffee stakes into more snacking platforms and acquisitions. It’s about product lines that are more in relation with wellbeing, but it’s certainly not limited to wellbeing.”
Mr Van de Put said- “We are very open to work with governments on any goal that they have. I’m a bit hesitant that sometimes the authorities want to go far beyond, want to be too restrictive, too prescriptive to the consumer. We desire for a joint campaign bidding to educate rather than restrict.”
“It could be that we would have to put a limit the range of products to sell because it’s not worth it any more to ship these products from A to B . . . if we would not have the chance to keep the British pound to an equal level with the euro, we would potentially have a product which now becomes more expensive,” he added.