Group Strategy
We aim to leverage on the existing international scale of our cocoa ingredients business and market leadership position for chocolate confectionery products in Indonesia to further grow our business. The principal elements of our strategy are:
Extend relationships with international food and beverage manufacturers and be the cocoa ingredients supplier of choice
We intend to continue to build on our existing customer portfolio of international food and beverage
manufacturers, both by increasing the number of our customers and the volumes and product ranges
that we supply. We aim to capitalise on the increasing trend in the cocoa industry towards outsourcing
of cocoa ingredients production to specialised cocoa processing companies. In this respect, we intend
to encourage potential customers to outsource the production of their cocoa ingredient needs to us
through close collaboration with them, including on research and development activities. This will
enable us to understand their product needs and develop products in accordance with their
specifications. In order to provide comprehensive solutions to our customers, our sales and technical
teams will continue to work closely with our customers to enhance our understanding of their specific
and potentially changing needs, so as to ensure that our products meet their stringent quality
requirements.
We also aim to increase the number of countries in which we supply our key customers. To this end, we will continue to leverage our competitive advantages of product quality, reliability of supplies, customer service, partnership and flexibility. We believe that this will enable us to secure new customers, and retain and build on existing customer relationships.
Broaden and deepen the geographical markets that we sell to
We plan to extend and deepen the geographical markets that we sell to in order to grow revenue and enhance the geographical diversification of our business.We intend to invest in the production capacity of our recently acquired cocoa ingredients plants in Brazil and Mexico to acquire new customers. We believe that these two plants will provide a platform for further penetration into Brazil and Mexico, two of the largest economies in Latin America. In the longer term, we also see potential for these locations to support our plans for increased sales of cocoa ingredients into the South and North American market. In addition, we aim to capitalise on the increased outsourcing of cocoa ingredients production in the cocoa and chocolate industry which could lead to an extension and deepening of the geographical markets that we sell to.
We also intend to diversify our branded consumer business beyond Indonesia and to increase our sales
in other Asian countries. We will continue to grow our branded consumer businesses in Malaysia and
Singapore and in other countries which we believe have growth potential in respect of our branded
consumer business, such as in China and Thailand.
Our immediate focus will be on extending the marketing and distribution network needed to introduce products and brands that have proven successful in Indonesia and to increase the proportion of sales outside Indonesia for the Branded Consumer Division. In more mature markets such as Malaysia and Singapore, we aim to identify gaps in product offerings currently in the market and to fill those niches with appropriate products from our range of chocolate confectionery products.
We intend to conduct market research in those countries we are contemplating growing our branded consumer business in with a view to ascertaining potential demand for our products and the position of our competitors in that market. We would first appoint local sales agents which we believe, will be a cost-efficient way to enter any market. In addition, sales agents can provide us with valuable countryspecific expertise.
Leverage our market leadership position in Indonesia to further grow our business
We intend to continue to leverage the leadership position of our brands in the Indonesian market to increase sales and our market share. We believe that there are significant growth prospects for chocolate confectionery in Indonesia given its huge population of approximately 220 million people, very low per capita consumption of chocolate confectionery of 0.1 kg per capita, compared with other more developed Asian countries, e.g. Singapore, with 1.1 kg per capita, and the potential for introduction of new chocolate confectionery products.
We will continue to extend our distribution capabilities in Indonesia and invest in marketing and
advertising promotional activities to build on the strengths of our portfolio of well-established brands. We
will also continue to place emphasis on brand, product and packaging development and innovation, and
market research data in order to anticipate and meet changing consumer trends and preferences.
Pursue demand-led expansion of our manufacturing capacities
We plan to expand our production capacity to meet the potential increase in demand for our products either from increased sales in the existing markets in which we operate or new markets which we may enter. Such expansion may be through locating a new production facility in a specific country or through increasing the number of production lines in our existing plants. For our cocoa processing plants, we will continue to build/acquire production facilities based on conservative estimates of the capacity required in order to avoid having under-utilised capacity at these facilities. However, we will continue to design our production facilities such that new production lines can be added commensurate with increased demand for our cocoa ingredients products. We will use the production facilities in one country to supply to other countries where it is cost efficient. In addition, we intend to continue to increase our operational efficiencies including through increasing the scale of our production.
Increase global market share through strategic alliances or acquisitions
We plan to increase our global presence by continuing to identify potential parties to form strategic
alliances with or by acquiring suitable targets which fit in with our overall group strategy. In particular,
where and if the appropriate opportunities arise, we intend to acquire, invest in or form joint venture
partnerships with suitable companies, in order to expand in Asia, and into Europe and North America.
We believe such strategic alliances, acquisitions or joint ventures may provide us with a faster route to
expand into new markets whilst providing us with valuable country-specific expertise and access to
customers and business relationships.