More than a hundred years’ experience has enabled us to strengthen our brands and build the Company’s success. During 2016, we prioritized shelf redesign, the optimization of shopping experience, execution of pricing strategy and pushing sales floor displays.  These actions allowed us to continue to build on our leadership and grow market share in most categories of the portfolio.

As a result of these and other initiatives, the Core Business grew 9.9%, derived from the price increases implemented during the year and the healthy performance of sales volumes. The most noteworthy categories were: mayonnaise, mole, pasta, tomato purée and home-style salsas.

The initiatives that most benefitted this segment of the business were: i) the use of digital platforms to create consumer experiences; ii) a communication strategy targeted to our young audiences; and iii) consumer engagement in the creation of products and packaging.

The Herdez® “Momentos para Crear” digital experience gave participants the opportunity to create new designs for Herdez® canned vegetables, mushrooms, salsas and soups. Consumers responded well to the initiative, registering over 5,000 designs and more than 20 million hits on different digital media.  The winning designs were printed on cans and were available at points of sale for eight weeks.

The contest also included the design of articles to encourage the reuse of cans, with options such as lamps, pencil holders, among others, in an effort to steer our consumers towards habits of responsible consumption. This trend will remain in 2017, with the installation of intelligent can collecting machines; the collected cans will be used to construct water heaters in marginalized communities.

The Herdez® “Presume tu Salsa” initiative was run in Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora to find the best home-made salsas from the culinary experience of Mexicans, and select one to become the new Herdez® salsa. This movement brought together hundreds of participants who showcased their salsas on the digital platform https://presumetusalsa.com. In 2017, we will launch the winning salsa nationwide and continue our tour of the country in search of new salsa varieties, to strengthen our leadership in this category.

Thanks to this and other initiatives, Herdez® achieved a growth of 4% in young homes (with women under 34 years) and an increased market share in the supermarket channel.