Click to play videoMumbai: Candy might be dandy, but in adult confectioneries, where the market action is, mint and gum is growing at 10 to 15 per cent while candy plods along at 6 or 7 per cent.
Young adults will pay Rs 5 or Rs 10 for a packet of mint and gum. That's why companies like Wrigleys & Perfetti are betting on them.
“I think the indication we have of impending launches from other players in the market only indicates that there's an overall thrust to the gum market and its growing,” said Perfetti Van Melle India MD Prakash Wakankar
Wakankar sees big potential in sugar-free gums, which account for over half the confectionery sales in Europe. That’s because consumers are getting health conscious.
So, companies like Lotte India and Godrej will hop on to the health bandwagon, launching nutritious candy in the next three or four months.
Such niche products are expected to break the price barrier of 25 to 50 paise.
“Value of niche category is higher and overall if you look at the category, category will move much better,” said Godrej Beverages and Foods MD A Mahendran.
Modern trade will help with snazzy displays on neat shelves. The format is expected to account for a third of candy sales in the next two to four years.
Impulse products do better when the consumer is in a spend-happy mode. And that's driving confectionery companies to innovate and enter new segments.
With this they might manage to pad up their wafer-thin margins that hover around 3 to 5 per cent and manage the pressures of rising input costs.
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