Montreaux Chocolate USA: Are Americans Ready for Healthy Dark Chocolate?

In pursuit of upscale segments of the market and an increased market share, Consumer Food Groups (CFG) purchased the rights to become a distributor of Montreaux’s European chocolate products in the United States in June 2011. As CFG is the division which produces confectionery products for Apollo foods, they contribute not only to one-third of the company’s total revenues and net income, but are a vital part of Apollo’s ranking as second in the global confectionery business. Upon acquisition of the rights for Montreaux’s chocolates CFG formed a new division, Montreaux Chocolate USA. Under the leadership of David Raymond as division manager and Andrea Torres …show more content…

In this round of BASES testing, the team wanted to examine the various levels of awareness and distribution (low, medium, and high) as well as various repeat rates (mediocre, average, excellent) to consider sensitivity of meeting or exceeding the $30 million sales volume desired. In looking at these projections, Torres had to make a decision as to her next steps in implementation of the fruit flavored dark chocolate. She could either (1) recommend product for further product testing (2) market the product in selected test markets (3) plan a regional rollout or launch nationally. She had until the board meeting to make her final decision for a recommendation. Based on calculations from the student template provided, in order to achieve the $30 million in sales volume, at least two of three areas (awareness, distribution, repeat rates) need to be within their moderate ranges with the third in the high/excellent range. At worst case scenario, with all measures at their lowest limits, sales volume would only be reflected at $17.4 million, barely over half where it needs to be. Given the credibility concern due to the Montreaux name being unfamiliar to American consumers, this could create some hesitation. A SWOT analysis could further help identify the appropriate action to take.

Strengths:
Apollo is second in global