Mondelez CEO Cooks Up A New Recipe for the Oreo Maker
How does Oreo cookie yogurt sound to you? Or what about hot chicken wing and wasabi-flavored Oreos?
These are snacks that Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put is cooking up for consumers in the 160 countries where the food giant does business. The Belgian-born Van de Put, took charge of Mondelez (MDLZ) about a year ago and his plan is to boost revenues by focusing on snacks—especially ones with new and exciting flavors.
“The consumer these days has many diverging tastes and we want to make sure that we offer the consumer the right snack at the right moment, made the right way,” Van de Put tells Fortune.
Mondelez has struggled in recent years to grow sales as consumers turn away from packaged food in favor of healthy eating. Under Van de Put, the Chicago-based company, which has a pantry of famous brands like Oreos, Ritz Crackers and Cadbury chocolates, is experimenting with new recipes in the U.S. He is also allowing more innovative foods to be developed at its operations in emerging markets.
“We cannot invent what types of flavors Oreos should have from Chicago,” he says. “We need to let our Chinese, our Indian, and our South African teams decide on that.”
With revenues of nearly $26 billion, Mondelez is ranked number 117 on the Fortune 500 list of America’s biggest companies. Van de Put believes his plan will boost revenues by 3 percent by 2020. And, by then, he says, “We expect our stock price will go up quite considerably.” If he pulls that off, that will be a sweet snack for hungry Mondelez investors.
Watch the video above for more from our interview with Van de Put.
