Kraft Expands Marketing Of Chocolate Products In India

Kraft Foods has increased advertising, capital expenditure, and sales and marketing spending in India by more than 70 percent over the past year in an effort to boost annual sales by 30 percent for chocolate. The aggressive spending follows on the heels of its acquisition of Cadbury Plc., which controls 70 percent of the chocolate market in India, according to company executives. The company is also expanding into the growing $ 3 billion market for biscuits (cookies): it has started selling Oreos, which Kraft makes locally despite rising sugar prices and declines in the rupee against the dollar. “If we can get a substantial percentage of that market it would be very good,” an executive said. “We’d like to make up for the lost time.”