By Rohit Vaid

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS): After a healthy festive season led demand push, snacking major Mondelez India foresees continuance of positive off-take sentiment.

Accordingly, Mondelez India, which was formerly, known as Cadbury India has cited that pandemic has actually accelerated the growth of snacking in India.

Besides, the company has expanded its e-com as well as on-ground reach to buck the Covid induced downtrend.

At present, the snacking major operates in chocolate, beverages, biscuits and candy categories in the country.

It owns brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk, 5 Star, Perk, Gems, Bournvita, Tang and Oreo among others.

In a conversation with IANS, Mondelez India Sales Director Praveen Dalal said: "We reconfigured our offerings to suit the new norms."

"Whether it was expanding our gifting portfolio with different SKUs and brands or accelerating our efforts in the e-commerce space while complimenting it with focussed marketing strategies."

Additionally, the shift and dependence of consumers over brands like Cadbury, Bournvita, Tang and Oreo has led the company to strengthen its distribution network.

"We have added 100,000 stores to our on-ground ecosystem and offered personalised and digital shopping opportunities, through our D2C website which recorded a considerable increase in the number of orders, per day," he said.

According to Dalal, the company witnessed a pickup in its premium and personalised gifting offerings during the just concluded festive season.

"We were ahead of the curve in meeting this demand at the back of aggressive brand investments, increased availability in traditional trade and through providing more choices and proliferating our distribution through unique partnerships with other online marketplaces and e-grocers."

"The sentiment are definitely positive as movement restrictions were lifted and consumers made most of this opportunity to connect with their loved ones."

Recently, the company came out with its ‘State of Snacking' report which examined the evolution of snacking worldwide amidst the pandemic, including India.

The study showed that two thirds of Indians are snacking more during the pandemic and 77 per cent say they look forward to snacking more than their meals.

Furthermore, it revealed that 3 in 4 Indian adults have relied on snacks for nourishment during the pandemic.

"A majority are also snacking more mindfully at home, saying that they are more in touch with the snacks their body needs these days (80 per cent), and that they have more control over the portions they eat because they are snacking at home more often (80 per cent)," the study said.

In addition, it pointed out a majority of respondents saying they have started to buy snacks online more often than they do in-store or offline (74 per cent), with 8 in 10 planning to continue shopping for snacks online once the pandemic is over (81 per cent).

"A similar percentage also say the pandemic has opened their eyes to so many more ways to get snacks than they knew existed before (80 per cent), including half who have discovered snacks to try on social media (50 per cent)."