Mondelez Malaysia managing director Swadheen Sharma
Kuala Lumpur: Mondelez Malaysia, part of the global snacking powerhouse Mondelez International, recorded revenue of RM750mil in 2016 - its best performing year since its transition from Kraft Foods five years ago.
Amidst challenging market conditions, Mondelez Malaysia saw close to 7%increase in revenue from the previous year.
The maker of iconic brands including Oreo, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Jacob’s and Twisties also currently ranked number one in the biscuits category with a market share of more than 25%.
Additionally, Mondelez achieved significant growth for its chocolates, further consolidating its number two share position in this category. The company also has number two share position in Salty Snacks and a sizeable Candy business.
Mondelez Malaysia managing director Swadheen Sharma said: “Last year was a remarkable year for us because we did extremely well in various aspects of our business and organisation. We delivered top-tier financial performance and have grown even closer to becoming a great place to work.
"Our vision is to become the world’s greatest snacking company and we’ll get there by living our purpose of creating moments of joy for our consumers, business partners, community and colleagues.”
Swadheen, who assumed his current role in mid-2016, emphasised that the company is set for an exciting year ahead and for continuing its momentum to further drive growth.
“Over the long term, we’re confident that we can deliver sustainable, profitable, top-tier growth. We cannot discount the fact that there will be challenges ahead but as a business we are prepared to navigate them by focusing on accelerating our core brands, growing our people and deepening our impact in the communityi n areas where we can make a real difference,” he added.
Mondelez expects a greater focus on recruiting, retaining and empowering top talent as part of its long term growth strategy.
Employing over 1,100 people nationwide, the company recognises the potential of its talent not only in delivering business success in Malaysia, but also building Malaysia as a talent hub for its operation in South-East Asia.
Continued investments are in place to drive initiatives that enable the right blend of skills and experience for employees.
Notably, the company has created ‘Mondelez International University’, an online global learning programme to enhance leadership and functional skills.
Mondelez also extends its commitment in building the next generation of talent through the execution of its iTaste graduate programme.
Aimed at fast-tracking careers, the programme is structured to deliver a rich and diverse range of experiences and cross-functional exposure to help entry talents develop their domain expertise.
“At Mondelez, we embrace a proven equation for success in our people development. 70% is through on-the-job experience, while another 20% is developed through mentoring and coaching. The remaining 10% comes through high-quality programmes.
And encapsulating all these efforts is the creation of an appealing culture with a great sense of belonging among our colleagues,” Swadheen explained.
The organisation revealed that the positive growth of its categories has been driven by changing consumer behaviour and relevant innovation.
The ability to remain innovative in offering the best products and brand experience is the reason the company has been able to deliver such strong results and why it is confident of continued success.
Looking ahead, Mondelez will also be focusing on building excellence in its sales execution to drive category growth.
This requires even deeper partnerships with its retailers to improve the shopping experience, faster speed to market, improved freshness and availability.
Mondelez’s venture into e-commerce through its collaboration with top online shopping platforms in the country is another step to ensure it is consistently keeping up with consumers’ lifestyles thus making its products available wherever the consumer might be.
Swadheen stressed that Mondelez’s commitment to its Call for Well-being is a holistic one. The health of individuals, communities and the planet are inextricably linked.
In response to the growing consumer preference towards healthy snacking, Mondelez has introduced more options for its consumers.
In 2017, the company will be concentrating on scaling up its Joy Schools initiative, an ‘adopt-a-school’ programme to help children lead a healthy and active lifestyle by engaging with more schools and increasing its engagement activities.
This is also a part of the company’s global growth ambition to make a difference in the community that it operates in.
Besides that, the company’s commitment to well-being and sustainabilityis also ingrained in daily manufacturing practices across its production plants in Shah Alam, Johor Bahru and Prai.
This includes minimising environmental impact by continuously maintaining a zero waste to landfill and reduce usage of both water and energy by 15% each.
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