The FINANCIAL — 2012 was another successful year for Kraft Foods in Georgia. Sales of the company’s products grew, increasing its market share and strengthening its already leading position.
“Specifically, sales of the brands Jacobs coffee and Barni children’s biscuit grew at double-digit rates. This means that we are doing everything right – we offer consumers the products that they like and that bring them satisfaction,” Sergei Fedko, Director at Kraft Foods Georgia, told The FINANCIAL.
Kraft Foods started working in Georgia in 2005. The company is present in five product categories: coffee, chocolate, salted snacks, biscuits and gum and candy. Georgian consumers named Jacobs and Barni their favourite brand, and these two brands were awarded a Golden Brand award this year.
“Up until 2011 products were sold in the country through a distribution company. The business kept growing, people consumed more of our products and the next logical step in the development of the company was opening a legal entity – Kraft Foods Georgia. We did that in 2011. As of today we have gained market leadership in the categories of chocolate and salted snacks; we are number one in coffee. We are successfully growing our gum and biscuits categories. Another great achievement of our company in Georgia is its strong team of professionals, which we built with our partner. We currently have 32 employees.
In Fedko’s words, the political changes in the country did not affect their business. “The biggest priority and number one goal of Kraft Foods not just in Georgia but in all other countries around the world is satisfying consumers’ needs by offering them tasty and high quality products. Therefore no matter what political, economic or social changes happen we keep focusing on growing our business and offering consumers exactly what they want,” he said.
Kraft Foods Georgia is the importer of children’s snack food “Barni” that has gained great popularity in Georgia. “First of all, Barni is a unique product. It is made from natural ingredients which do not contain preservatives or artificial colorants. The biscuit is in the attractive form of a teddy bear and children love it – it helps them develop and explore the world around them through both taste and texture.”
Any product can manage to gain popularity in a short period of time, but the real test is in maintaining consumer popularity levels otherwise demand generally decreases.
“At Kraft Foods we have many examples of brands that consumers have not got bored with even after 100 years. For example, Milka chocolate has been produced for more than 100 years now and keeps being the favourite chocolate of people in many countries around the world. Barni is popular in many countries too and we hope more and more Georgians will start enjoying it as well. We already see its popularity growing – in 2012 it showed double digit growth in sales. In the future we will keep offering consumers good quality products, satisfaction and opportunities for kids to explore the world around them with Barni bear.”
“Jacobs is the leader on the Georgian coffee market and continues to increase its market share. There are many other coffee brands in Georgia which can be found in all the stores. And that is good. Competition drives us to offer even better options to consumers,” said Fedko.
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