Marketing - Montreaux
Montreaux Chocolate USA: Are Americans Ready for Healthy Dark Chocolate?
In pursuit of upscale segments of the market and an increased market share, Consumer Food Groups (CFG) purchased the rights to become a distributor of Montreaux’s European chocolate products in the United States in June 2011. As CFG is the division which produces confectionery products for Apollo foods, they contribute not only to one-third of the company’s total revenues and net income, but are a vital part of Apollo’s ranking as second in the global confectionery business. Upon acquisition of the rights for Montreaux’s chocolates CFG formed a new division, Montreaux Chocolate USA. Under the leadership of David Raymond as division manager and Andrea Torres as director of new product development, this division is working to help Montreaux Chocolate Company reach its goal of expanding to the US and Apollo’s to seek a greater presence in the lucrative chocolate market and grow its confectionery market share. Of all the different segments within the confectionery market, chocolate is the most lucrative accounting for almost 53% of the market’s total value. Not only is confectionery market itself growing, but the chocolate segment specifically is showing increases in both market share and revenues projected to 2015. Chocolate market trends in 2011 indicated that dark chocolate sales were on the rise, consumers are interested in low-calorie options, premium chocolate was becoming more accessible in mainstream channels, and packaging and labeling were growing more likely to affect customer appeal. Awareness of these trends and growing consumer focus on fitness and health, placed Torres in a unique position to work to develop new products which featured a healthy focus. Through combined efforts of the New Product Development (NPD) team, Torres, Montreaux Research and Development, and Apollo, the growing dark chocolate market was explored as a possibility of development of a new
In pursuit of upscale segments of the market and an increased market share, Consumer Food Groups (CFG) purchased the rights to become a distributor of Montreaux’s European chocolate products in the United States in June 2011. As CFG is the division which produces confectionery products for Apollo foods, they contribute not only to one-third of the company’s total revenues and net income, but are a vital part of Apollo’s ranking as second in the global confectionery business. Upon acquisition of the rights for Montreaux’s chocolates CFG formed a new division, Montreaux Chocolate USA. Under the leadership of David Raymond as division manager and Andrea Torres as director of new product development, this division is working to help Montreaux Chocolate Company reach its goal of expanding to the US and Apollo’s to seek a greater presence in the lucrative chocolate market and grow its confectionery market share. Of all the different segments within the confectionery market, chocolate is the most lucrative accounting for almost 53% of the market’s total value. Not only is confectionery market itself growing, but the chocolate segment specifically is showing increases in both market share and revenues projected to 2015. Chocolate market trends in 2011 indicated that dark chocolate sales were on the rise, consumers are interested in low-calorie options, premium chocolate was becoming more accessible in mainstream channels, and packaging and labeling were growing more likely to affect customer appeal. Awareness of these trends and growing consumer focus on fitness and health, placed Torres in a unique position to work to develop new products which featured a healthy focus. Through combined efforts of the New Product Development (NPD) team, Torres, Montreaux Research and Development, and Apollo, the growing dark chocolate market was explored as a possibility of development of a new