Cadbury India, the Indian arm of British confectionery giant Cadbury Schweppes, has seen a surge in its chocolate sales. This, after the meltdown in sales in the wake of the worm controversy last year.
Last October, when worms were found in bars of the flagship brand Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) in certain shops in Kerala and Maharashtra, the company saw its value share melt from 73 per cent in October 2003 to 69.4 per cent in January 2004. In May, however, it inched up to 71 per cent.
CDM sales volumes declined from 68 per cent in October to 64 per cent in January 2004. It edged up to 65.9 per cent in May 2004. Says a Cadbury India executive: "The big factor that has pushed up CDM sales is the Amitabh Bachchan campaign. It helped restore consumers' faith in the quality of the product."
CDM contributes about 30 per cent to Cadbury India's turnover, which stood at Rs 729.81 crore (Rs 7,298.1 million) in the year ended December 2003. The Rs 2,000-crore (Rs 20 billion) chocolate market witnessed a growth of 4 per cent in 2003,