February 2005: Candico, the second largest Indian confectionery company has launched a new range of hard-boiled mint candies. Mint candies are the highest growing segment in the industry today. Candico's XXX the xtra strong white mint is available for 50 paise a piece and a packet of 100 candies is priced at Rs. 50/-.

"Mint candies are the most preferred candies amongst the young adult consumers. Keeping in view the popularity of mint candies, we have introduced XXX to the Indian market," said Mr. Madhav Gupta, Executive Director, CANDICO India Ltd.

Candico made a strategic decision not to enter the mint category till today. In fact, it was our conscious decision not to enter the category, till we had a differentiated product offering. A series of both in house as well as external market research was done.

In the current market, "Almost all the mint products were competing in the same brand space with little to no product differentiation in terms of product attribute or consumer offers. The current mints in the market are based on either medicinal or breath freshener platform and are around the same taste index," says Mr. Madhav Gupta. We also found that product appearance as well as packaging of various brands was almost similar to each other.

It was after identifying the current market that we found a gap in the market that needed to be bridged. Candico's XXX targets the mint consumer who is looking for that extra strong mint while packaging the product in a distinct white wrapper.

About CANDICO

CANDICO is the only Indian company that manufactures all 4 categories of confectionery - candies, toffees, lozenges and gums. It has an impressive portfolio of 13 popular brands including Loco Poco, Koffi Toffi, Gumbo Jumbo, Eclairs and Time Bomb and has achieved sales of over 2 billion products annually.

CANDICO owns India's largest integrated confectionery manufacturing facility. Located at Nagpur (Maharashtra), this state-of-the-art facility is spread over a sprawling 15-acre campus. With a production capacity of 45,000 tonnes, the plant also undertakes contract manufacturing for large players in the industry. Its current and prior clients include Nestle, HLL, ITC, Nutrine, Dalmiya Consumer Care and Euro Gadhia (London).

For further information, please contact:

Monika Sharma: 011-26950580

Email: monika@candicoindia.com

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CANDICO, a Rs 125 crore confectionery giant, began its operations in the year 1997. In a span of just 8 years, it has grown to become the second largest Indian confectionery company. Candico is the only Indian confectionery company which has the capability to manufacture all four-product categories of confectionery: Candies, Toffees, Mints and Gums. Most of our products are well known in their category for instance Loco Poco, Koffi Toffi , Lacto Plus, Fruits Candy , Eclairs, Time Bomb and Jumbo Gumbo.

Candico has the distinction of having launched Fruit Chews ( an internationally acclaimed product ) - first time by an Indian company. It is available in three mouth watering flavours - Banana, Muskmelon & Strawberry.