Mai Xuan Tram (standing), deputy general of KIDO Group, announced at the company’s annual general meeting in HCM City on Monday that the company will return to the confectionery. — VNS Photo

KIDO Group will return to its core business of confectionery from the third quarter of this year, a company leader announced at its annual general meeting in HCM City on Monday.

This announcement comes more than five years after the company sold its snack business to a foreign company, Modelez International.

“With advanced technology, great experience and a huge distribution system comprising 400,000 points of sale, we expect to be the second biggest confectionary producer in the country after two years of coming back,” Mai Xuan Tram, deputy general of KIDO Group, told the meeting.

The company would focus on products that are in huge demand like snacks, specialities and gifts, he said.

Demand for specialities and gifts is huge since the country has two major holidays, the Lunar New Year and the Mid-autumn festival, besides several other festivals for which consumers need to give gifts, he said.

With a size of VND51 trillion (US$2.19 billion), the confectionery market is huge, he affirmed.

The return to the confectionery business is among the company’s restructuring strategies, one it believed would benefit both it and shareholders.

It has been acquiring some companies and started a new business in the beverages sector.

The restructure would leverage the production and distribution capabilities of its subsidiaries and increase its business scale, and enable it to use resources efficiently, the company said.

It would increase the stock value and liquidity for shareholders, it said.

Following the restructure KIDO Group hopes to increase net revenues by two and a half times from 2020 to over VND28.1 trillion ($1.2 billion).

For fiscal year 2020 it has set a revenue target of VND8.23 trillion ($354 million) and a profit before tax target of VND330 billion ($14.2 million), up 14 per cent and 17 per cent. — VNS