to cometheceomagazine.com | 63“Our business in Indonesia caters to
Perfetti Van Melle’s seventh largest market in
the world. Consumption levels and market
developments in Indonesia are still very
low, so there is a tremendous opportunity
for growth. We are the market leader, yet
we only hold 18 per cent market share.
Therefore, we are constantly innovating
and strategically marketing our products
to encourage consumers to evolve.”
Perfetti Van Melle has a vision to enhance
its world leadership in confectionery by
creating value for consumers through new
and delightful high-quality products. Its
central laboratories in Italy – supported
by local laboratories in various countries
- are constantly researching new chewing
gum and candy formulations, as well as
improvements to existing products.
“The innovation and excitement we
bring to the industry is like none other
and, as the market leader, this gives us the
opportunity to drive growth,” says Afnan.
“We are present in almost every single
category in the sugar confectionery industry,
including chewing gum, bubble gum, soft
candy, chewy candy and hard candy. So,
although we exist in a highly fragmented
and competitive environment, we cater to
all consumer preferences.”
Afnan notes that consumers
in both mature and growing
economies are very sensitive to
new experiences and concepts.
Perfetti Van Melle aims to
surprise its customers with
new products, flavours, packaging
and product concepts that will
help them enjoy the sweeter
moments in life.
The company prides itself on
creating an environment in which
passion, expertise and entrepreneurship
thrive, allowing it to ‘unwrap the potential’
of its staff. “When you invest in a machine, it
has a defined output. No matter how well you look
after it, it will never give you more than that. That is why
people are our best investment, and the way we’ve built
our team is the crucial to our success,” says Afnan.
“Our suppliers allow us to source locally. We tend to
rely heavily on imports for packaging and raw materials,
but, with an unstable rupee, it’s very difficult for us to
compete. What we’ve been trying to do over the past two
years is to develop a network of local suppliers. In the past,
Malaysia had a very small presence in UV-barrier packaging,
so we developed our local suppliers to invest in modern
technology. Now, we source 100 per cent of our flexible
packaging from 80 Indonesian suppliers alone. We also
started developing our local glucose suppliers. Indonesia has
always been a tapioca-based glucose manufacturer, so all our
brilliant white glucose needs were based on imports. We are
now at the stage where we purchase almost 80 per cent of
our glucose locally. We have been able to help our suppliers
to upgrade their businesses and bring their manufacturing
processes to a higher level within the industry.
“The biggest advantage we gain from these relationships
is cost predictability without having to worry about foreign
exchange fluctuation. Because we source locally, we pay
in rupees and we earn in rupees,” explains Afnan. “Our
multiple principal distributors have been working in the
market for a long time, and our success is based on their
strength. We have approximately 130 distributors across the
country, and we work with them to manage their business
analytics. We invest a lot in distributor management systems
and salesforce automation. We bring our global best practices
and help them to manage their business efficiently and
effectively. This is a win-win because as our suppliers
become stronger so do we.”“We are constantly
innovating and
strategically marketing our
products to encourage
consumers to evolve.”
Company profile | INNOVATE