Perfetti Van Melle to use recycled plastic for Diwali gifting

Rajesh Ramakrishnan has spent nine years with Perfetti Van Melle, of which three and a half years were in Bangladesh. He said, "The confectionary market in India has been growing at a steady pace which is in the low, single digits."

When asked about Perfetti Van Melle's sustainability project he said, "Sustainability is a key area of focus in today’s context and we look at it in different ways."

He pointed out, "We are looking at how we are continuously increasing our usage of green energy. A lot of fuel consumption is converted into biomass fuel. That’s an ongoing journey and we’ll keep at it." He added, "Secondly, we are looking to continuously reduce the quantity of water used for production."

When asked about plastic usage, Ramakrishnan said, "We do need to use plastic to deliver our product to the consumer, since it’s the only way we can maintain the purity of the product. But we have various initiatives to recycle it. We use recycled plastic for our Diwali gifts so at least a percentage of it gets reused."

He said, "Of the jars that we use to sell, almost 50% of them are made from 20% recycled PET. So the jar isn’t 100% plastic."

Ramakrishnan said "Various initiatives are afoot but it’s a journey and we are on our way when it comes to sustainability."

Talking about Perfetti Van Melle's packaging solutions, Ramakrishnan said, "We are still experimenting. The global Mentos jar is the first launch for us in a paper container."

He said, "In global markets, the weather conditions are favourable for us to use these containers."

He explained, "In India, we would like to move in this direction too but we need to test this. If consumers trust us, we have to offer them a product which is of a certain quality. That journey will take some time. We have different targets for different aspects of sustainability."

Ramakrishnan said, "Over the last 10 years, the confectionary category has started moving up in price points. Earlier, the price point was 50 paise to a rupee. Now, the 50 paise price point has almost completely gone and the rupee is gaining salience. There are some products which are even sold at INR 2, 5 and 10."

He added, "The last four to five years have been good for us. If I leave the Covid lockdown period aside, there has been handsome growth for the company. We are the market leaders with a 25% plus market share, so it’s our responsibility to drive the category."

The group operates in gums, candies, jellies, lollipops, mints. The three brands in the gum category are Center Fruit, Center Fresh and Happydent. Center Fruit is the highest-selling product followed by Center Fresh.

In the jellies category, Perfetti Van Melle has Chupa Chups and Alpenliebe Juzt Jelly. In lollipops, there is Chupa Chups and Alpenliebe; and in the mints category it is Center Fresh.