Mondelez slims down after biscuit sector crumbles

"Mondelez is coping with changing aspirations of Chinese consumers. They are looking for healthier snacks with less sugar," Jason Yu, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel, said. "At the same time, Mondelez is also competing against local brands."

Last year, mushroom biscuits rolled out by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Jiangzhong Group Co Ltd, caught them off guard, and the brand is still selling well.

"More local products are lining up to attack multinational consumer labels while focusing on a niche sector that is ignored by major market leaders", Yu said.

In an interview with China Daily earlier this year, Stephen Maher, president of Mondelez China, pointed out that one yuan in every four is spent on one of the company's brands in the biscuit sector.

Still, Mondelez China is confident that chewing gum will be a major revenue driver in the years ahead after introducing the new Trident label, which is aimed at middle-class family consumers.

Last year, the chewing gum market in China, the second-largest behind the United States, was worth 18.85 billion yuan ($3.03 billion), a research report released by Mintel Group Ltd, a market intelligence agency in the United Kingdom, highlighted.

Along with its 5.5 percent market share taken by Stride, Mondelez is expected to close the gap on dominant players such as Extra and Double Mint, owned by Confectionary China Ltd, part of Mars Inc.