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Brands with Healthier Choice logo credentials

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Since the launch of the Healthier Choice Logo (HCL) by the Ministry of Health of Malaysia in April 2017, a number of products have embraced HCL including F&N’s 100Plus. As of 21 April 2017, 18 companies with 42 products received HCL recognition, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya.

Click here for the list of 48 products with HCL status as of 11 May 2017.

 

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar

The Coca-Cola Company made an announcement in early May 2017 its sugar-free Coca-Cola Zero Sugar now comes with the Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS) from Singapore.

Quaker oats

In May 2017, PepsiCo’s Quakers Instant Oatmeal and Quaker Quick Cook Oatmeal are now marked with the Healthier Choice logo.

Munchy’s Oat Krunch

Biscuit maker Munchy’s updated the cover photo on its official Facebook account on 2 July 2017 indicating Oat Krunch now has the Healthier Choice logo.

100Plus

Both the new 100Plus Active and 100Plus Original have been given the Healthier Choice logo by the Ministry of Health.

Pocket talk on how HCL can generate revenue

To promote brands to adopt HCL, SME Corp of Malaysia will organise an event on 26 July 2017 from 8.30am to 12.30pm at Platinum Sentral. The key topic is how to generate revenue using HCL. Click here for more information.

What Mini Me thinks

There is a pressing need to promote HCL among brand owners and consumers. It would be ideal to have a study to track the influence of HCL on consumer shopping behaviour to check the efficacy of the program.

Instead of letting manufacturers to take the self initiative to register their products to gain the HCL credential, the Ministry of Health can emulate what the Singapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB) is doing and that is to work with producers to come up with healthier products.

Interestingly, none of the products awarded with HCL has affixed the logo on their packaging.

Farm Fresh business model rides kurma milk popularity

By
Tan Heng Hong
-
Image from Milkbar

Demand for Farm Fresh Kurma Milk rising rapidly

Dates milk or kurma milk has recently attracted a lot of interest in Malaysia following the debut of Farm Fresh Kurma Milk.

The demand for Farm Fresh Kurma Milk, the first of its kind in the market, seems to have outstripped supply. The Farm Fresh’s latest Facebook posting on Kurma Milk on 2 May 2017 has attracted at least 12,400 likes, 668 shares and 878 comments at the time of writing on 8 July 2017.

Farm Fresh Kurma Milk posting on 2 May 2017 as of the time of writing on 7 July 2017.

The benefits and attractions of Farm Fresh Kurma Milk has been discussed in an earlier post in March 2017. Click here for the article.

Available in modern grocery chains

A lot of the comments were about where they can purchase the milk. Officially, the kurma milk is available in modern grocery chains like Giant, Tesco and Aeon Big, Jaya Grocer and Hero. Unfortunately, stock tends to run out quickly. To get hold of the milk, consumers often have to resort to getting it from home dealers who have priority to the milk.

Developing home dealers

In fact, Farm Fresh is working to develop a network of home dealers to bring its milk to more households in the country, replicating the success of Yakult Lady.

The network of home dealers is expanding rapidly riding on the popularity of kurma milk among ethnic Malay consumers. The stockist in Muar in the southern state of Johor epitomises the strategy of harnessing the popularity of kurma milk to recruit new dealers.

Farm Fresh stockist in Muar, Johor

The stockist and dealer distribution approach works well especially in the beauty and health food segments.

Milkbar taps festive marketing

Image from Milkbar

To reach out to more potential customers during the Raya festive season, a kiosk at KL Sentral, a key transit hub, was set up by Farm Fresh at the Departure Hall. The Milkbar aims to ensure customers “receive the healthiest fresh milk available.” The star product was the often-out-of-stock Farm Fresh Kurma Milk. Date is commonly consumed during the break of fast during the fasting period, thus kurma milk is ideally positioned to tap into this cultural dietary practice.

Image from Milkbar

Farm Fresh has even made available a limited-edition 2 litre kurma milk for Ramadan.

Other innovations from Farm Fresh

The complete list of halal-certified Farm Fresh Milk Sdn Bhd dairy products can be found here. A few that caught my eyes are Farm Fresh Cafe Latte – Tongkat Ali, Caffe Latte – Green Tea and Farm Fresh Greek Yoghurt.

Happy Farm Kurma Milk new player in town

The success of Farm Fresh has attracted the entry of Happy Farm into the nascent but fast growing category.  The new kurma milk is packed by Favourite Resources Sdn Bhd and the key ingredients are fresh milk, kurma concentrate and milk fat. The 1 litre Happy Farm Kurma Milk is available at Giant for a price of RM 9.99, which is a premium to Happy Farm Fresh Milk selling at RM 7.29 per litre.

What Mini Me thinks

Farm Fresh is the company to watch. The company’s successful home dealer strategy and the popularity of its kurma milk are good examples of how a company localises its distribution, marketing and product innovation to cater to the conditions in Malaysia.

It would be interesting to see if other dairy companies will follow suit with their own kurma milk, which provides an opportunity to premiumise the fresh milk category.

 

FMCG growth champions

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Who were the growth champions in Indonesia in 2016? The answers were revealed by the June 2017 edition of the Marketeers Magazine, Indonesia’s top marketing media.

These high fliers were identified by Nielsen based on the tracking of the brand’s performance in 2016 against 2015. On the list includes three instant noodle brands and two bottled water brands.

The following are the “Growth Champions” of 2016, according to Nielsen.

I would like to highlight Mayora Group and Wings Food, the two FMCG behemoths in Indonesia.

Mayora Group has three brands on list

Mayora Group has the honour of having three of its brands on the list. They comprise Bakmi Mewah instant noodle, Le Minerale bottled water and Teh Pucuk Harum RTD Tea. Bakmi Mewah revolutionised the instant noodle scene by introducing instant noodle that comes with real meat pieces during the second half of 2015. The brand’s nearly 2,000% gain in volume and value in 2016 can be explained largely from the low base effect and the popularity generated by the novel concept.

Mayora Group launched Bakmi Mewah and Le Minerale in 2015. Both the instant noodle and bottled water businesses are new to Mayora and represented the company’s daring move to take on the goliaths in instant noodle (Indomie) and bottled water (Danone Aqua).

Wings Food’s winning brands Mie Sukses’s & Floridina

Wings Food has two products on the list – Mie Sukses’s and Floridina. Mie Sukses was introduced in 2015 as an affordable instant noodle with two pieces of noodles in each pack. This is not something new as market leader Indomie has something similar through Sarimi Isi 2.

Mie Sukses’s managed to carve a niche for itself by crafting its marketing message to middle to lower income consumers. This was achieved through associating with dangdut, which is the working class music of choice featuring sexy female singers. The roadshow in 2016 saw the brand inviting artists from Dangdut Academy to take part in the Hajatan Suksess event in 10 cities in the country.

The complete magazine is available on SCOOP.

What Mini Me thinks

I am sure there are brands that achieved strong growth in 2016 but did not get a mention. The key takeaway is the winning product has a unique preposition and is backed by marketing activities developed specially for their target audience.

New packaging for Teh Gelas with less sugar option

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

OT Group’s Teh Gelas ready-to-drink tea has been given a new “fresh packaging” since early 2017 as part of the brand’s 10th anniversary. The variant has also been added with the low sugar option for consumers who want something less sweet.

Only minor changes were made to the old packaging (below), thus preserving the general look and feel of the beverage.

New to the range is the less sugar option in an overall blue-yellow design to set it apart from Teh Gelas original in yellow. The closure of Teh Sugar less sugar is in bright blue.

What Mini Me thinks

Teh Gelas is quite late is the game of less sugar as its competitors Teh Kotak, Pucuk Harum, Sosro and Frestea (low calorie) have all introduced the less sugar option. The new less sugar Teh Gelas is largely in line with consumer growing weariness of sweetened beverages and concern about diabetes, which has become a major health issue in Indonesia.

*Images from Teh Gelas

Nature Valley snack bar available in 7-Eleven

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Fitbar used to be the only snack bar option in 7-Eleven in Malaysia before the arrival of Kellogg’s Coco Cereal Bar. In recent months, General Mills has enriched the snack bar choices at 7-Eleven with Nature Valley Crunch.

The snack bar comes with 2 bars each and weighs a total of 42g. It is imported by General Mills Malaysia Sdn Bhd from Spain. Each pack is priced at RM 2.90 (USD 0.67). The snack bar is certified halal by the Halal Food Council of Europe and is meant for the Middle East market. Click here for Nature Valley’s Middle East Facebook page.

The Nature Valley snack bars in a box of 6 is also available in hypermarkets and supermarkets.

At 7-Eleven, Fitbar from Indonesia’s Kalbe Farma is priced at RM 2.90 for a pack of 25g, while Kellogg’s Coco Cereal Bar is retailed at RM 2.40 for 22g.

What Mini Me thinks

It is interested to discover General Mills has become active in the snack bar category tapping into portable on-the-go snack for working adults and children and consumer interest in oats and ancient grains such as quinoa, millet and chia.

The spike in the interest on oat coincides with the 30-day Ramadan fasting period and Eid al-Fitr, which is the end of Ramadan. This is explained by the popularity of using oat and cornflakes in making festive cookies, thanks to promotions by brands like Quaker and Kellogg’s.

At the moment, there are more snack bar choices in the large store format for home consumption and less as an impulse purchase at convenience store chain.

100Plus original now with reduced sugar

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Since gaining the Healtheir Choice Logo (HCL), 100Plus mentioned in a reply to my Facebook query on 5 May 2017 that the beverage “will bear the HCL logo from September 2017. The new batch will also contain 6g of sugar per 100ml”.

Indeed, the new batch of original 100Plus in the limited-edition Raya and the 2017 SEA Game packaging now comes with 6g of sugar per 100ml, down from 6.6g.

What Mini Me thinks

The reduction in sugar is to comply with the HCL regulation. It also helps F&N to save on input cost cost in view of the rising price of sugar in 2016, which has since come down. Not only that, the move will prepare the brand for possible imposition of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages by the Malaysian government if it emulates the proposal by neighboring governments in Thailand and the Philippines.

New Cowa Treats, flavoured coconut water set to debut

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Coconut Water (COWA) Sdn Bhd, the company that introduced the Cowa coconut water, is planning to launch Cowa Treats by September 2017. The company revealed this at the Taste Fully Food & Beverage Expo, which was held at Mid Valley Megamall from 30 May 2017 to 2 June 2017.

New Cowa Treats

Cowa Treats will represent the extension of the Cowa brand from coconut water to virgin coconut oil (VCO) and subsequently into coconut snacks.

According to the information supplied by Cowa, the Treats range  comprises:

  • Coconut chips (40g) – original, honey and chocolate
  • Coconut chunks (40g) – original and honey
  • Coconut cereal bites (70g) – original
  • Coconut flake rolls (36g) – original

Cowa Coconut Chips are made from well selected mature coconuts and is baked and roasted using the equipment that preserve the original taste, aroma and texture.

Cowa Coconut Cereal Bites combines the natural goodness of coconut, almonds, cashew nuts and oats.

Cowa Coconut Flakes Roll combines the natural goodness of coconut milk, desiccated coconut, rice flour and brown sugar.

Cowa Coconut Chunks are made from well selected mature coconuts and is baked and roasted.

New packaging for Cowa VCO

In addition to Cowa Treats, the company’s Cowa Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) was given a new look as early as early 2017. The Cowa VCO was first spotted by the author at the Taste Fully Food & Beverage Expo in November 2016 but with an old packaging. The Cowa VCO is “centrifuge extracted from fresh coconut meat” with a “very mild coconut taste and is packed with anti-oxidants.” This production process makes the VCO tastes smoother and preserves all the nutrients. The Cowa VCO is available in 265ml and 530ml.

Flavoured coconut water set for Q4 debut

The honey and honey-lemon coconut water variants will be launched in Malaysia in the fourth quarter of 2017. The two new flavours have already been made available by the company along with coconut juice in China in 2017.

The debut of the honey and honey-lemon flavours will mark the expansion of Cowa coconut water into the flavoured category. A similar move to introduce the flavoured variants has already been made by its competitor Karta as early as 2015.

Coconut juice

Also available in Malaysia is the Cowa Coconut Juice in a plain white packaging. Promoting coconut juice will be challenging. Malaysian consumers would automatically associate coconut juice with santan, the liquid that comes from the grated meat of a mature coconut and used in curry.

The market is slowly moving towards coconut milk-based beverages, offering consumers with a non-dairy and soy-free option. At the end of 2015, FAL Food & Beverages introduced Coco Joy Natural and Flavored Coconut Milk in Malaysia through 7-Eleven but this product failed to gain traction and was withdrawn from the market.

In January 2017, Thai Coconut Public Company Limited launched the world’s first sparkling coconut water as well as Thai Coco snacks (Roasted Coconut Bar and Coconut Chips) and Thai Coco Coconut Milk Beverages in Malaysia. These products are distributed locally by Euro-Atlantic Sdn Bhd.

The Milky Coco Coconut Milk Drink by Cocomax is available in Malaysia at selected channels including at Cold Storage. Cocomax is manufactured by Thailand’s Asiatic Agro Industry Co., Ltd. and distributed locally by Max Food Enterprise (M) Sdn Bhd.

What Mini Me thinks

The availability of more coconut-based products in Malaysia including coconut snacks, flavoured coconut water and coconut milk-based drinks shows the growing maturity of the category. It does take time to cultivate the market for coconut-based products, given the strong attachment of Malaysian consumers to the taste of natural coconut water consumed straight from the nut.

In terms of marketing, companies are pitting packaged coconut water as the healthier alternative to isotonic drink with marketing campaigns targeting sporting events. Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is positioned as a nutritional supplement and is fetching a premium price. The marketing of coconut milk-based beverages in Malaysia may be hampered by the taste factor as coconut milk-based beverage does share a strong taste profile as the coconut milk (santan) used in cooking.

In my opinion, the coconut juice and treats are aimed largely at China.

*All the images come from Cowa.

Tropicana Twister sports a new look, resembling private label?

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

The Tropicana Twister juice drink range in Malaysia has been given a packaging makeover, now featuring three slices of oranges. FMCG brands are prone to upgrade their packaging to improve consumer engagement in the absence of new launches or innovations. We see this happening with snacks where it has become a yearly occurrence.

Some changes to the packaging refresh the brand image but some do not. For the new Tropicana Twister fuit pulp juice drink and juicy burst, I find they look more like private label juices. The word Tropicana is now much smaller. The new focus is on the three orange slices and a straw to highlight the fact that the juice drink is made from real juice and comes with refreshing fruit pulps.

Below is the image of the old packaging for Tropicana Twister Juicy Burst.

The new Tropicana Twister Juicy Burst (above) comes with 3x more pulps. The red label on the top left reminds me of the Hilo private label products of Hero Market, a supermarket chain in the Klang Valley. Perhaps this is a coincidence!

GreenLife introduces first organic coconut spirit in the Philippines

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

GreenLife Health Products Philippines (GreenLife) showcased a range of coconut-based products at the recent Taipei International Food Show (June 21-24, 2017) including the Philippines first organic coconut brandy. The spirit, launched in January 2017, has 45% alcohol volume (90 proof) and comes with a net content of 375ml. It is distilled in the organic coconut farm from freshly fermented coconut sap.

There are other lambanog or coconut arrack,a Filipino alcoholic beverage, but GreenLife’s is the first that is certified organic by international bodies in the US and Europe.

GreenLife Oganic Coconut Spirit is available at Rustan’s, Robinson, Alldays and organic shops.

*photo above taken by the author at the Taipei International Food Show

Indonesia FMCG sales slowing down or bottoming

By
Tan Heng Hong
-

Indonesia’s FMCG sales value (total 55 categories) grew 3.9% year-on-year during the first quarter of 2017, said Roy Mandey, chairman of the Indonesian Retail Merchants Association (Aprindo), at Jakarta Marketing Week (3-9 May 2017). FMCG sales value grew 10.9% in the same period a year ago. He did not mention the source of the Q1 2017 data but is likely to come from Nielsen Retail Audit.

FMCG sales growth moderating

Over a three-year period from 2014 to 2016, Nielsen Retail Audit data shows growth in Indonesia’s FMCG sales value (55 categories) has moderated. The FMCG market in 2015 grew by 11.5% year-on-year, falling subsequently to 7.7% year-on-year in 2016, according to data from the Alfamart year-end corporate presentation slides.

Non-food driving growth

Nielsen data shows non-food contributed most of the growth in 2016, of which personal care, home care and pharmaceutical sales value rose respectively by 7.3%, 6.1% and 4.3%, still a slowdown from a year ago.

Kantar Worldpanel data substantiated Nielsen’s claim in home care. According to Kantar data, which tracks around 5,000+ households in Indonesia, home care sales value in 2016 fell compared to 2015 but personal care surprisingly saw higher growth, up 12% in 2016 compared with a 8% growth in 2015.

Looking at the food sector (food, dairy and beverage), both Nielsen and Kantar data reveals strong dairy sales by value but slowdown has affected food and beverages. The Kantar Worldpanel slide did not disclose the breakdown for food, dairy and beverages.

The presentation by the head of Aprindo, Roy Mandey, reveals how the various segments performed year to date (YTD) February 2017 versus YTD 2016 citing Nielsen total grocery (55 FMCG categories).

It is apparent value is driving growth as manufacturers passed on rising cost to consumers to mitigate the effect of inflation. Inflation in 2016 stood at 3.02%, down from 3.35% in 2015, the lowest since 2012, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). Food inflation in 2016 stood at 5.69%, up from 4.93% in 2015 but down from 10.57% in 2014.

Categories seeing decline

The consumption volume of instant noodle fell but value grew marginally, a sign that consumers are shifting to more expensive products as they go for quality than quantity. This is in line with the premiumisation efforts by the instant noodle players to upgrade their products including adding real meat pieces.

Mineral water sales volume fell 0.8%, while value grew 5.8% but with a high 9.6% average price increase. The premiumisation effort is strong within mineral water as companies introduce products with a higher pH level and more convenience packaging.

RTD tea was the biggest decliner with volume and value YTD February 2017 down by 10.5% and 7.2%, respectively. This is a big surprise.

In YTD June 2016 versus YTD June 2015, RTD tea was a star performer, up by around 20% in value and volume, as with mineral water, according to Nielsen.

Image above from the Retail trend & marketing strategy 2017 presented by Yongky Susilo. Presentation slides available on Frontier Consulting Group website

Sales performance during Ramadan/Lebaran key barometer

The performance of 2017 will hinge on sales prior to Idul Fitri (Lebaran) festivities. Roy said during an interview with Media Indonesia on 4 July 2017 that sales in the final 10 days leading up to Idul Fitri saw strong growth due to heavy discounting by retailers. Lebaran/Ramadan contributed around 45% towards full year sales. Aprindo expects sales to grow 8% in 2017.

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