Short Notes on Petra

Article from The Edge (Singapore) Dec 26th. Short points:

• Petra accounts for 11% of worlds cocoa grinding capacity, fourth after ADM and Cargill (14% each) and Barry Callebaut (12%)
• In Petra's Indonseia market, they sold cheap chocolates. The Top Wafer bar comntains 12% cocoa powder, while normal chocolate contains 30% chocolate butter. They used wafer instead, and did everything possible to bring the price to IDR500 (7c).
• Worldwide, chocolate companies are vertically de-segregating. Nestle focuses on consumer brands. Barry Callebaut is the largest chocolate maker in the world - has economies of scale.
• Analysts (on cocoa grinding): Petra is a small player in Europe, may lack necessary economies of scale. Claudia Lenz, who covers barry Callebaut for Bank Vontobel: In Asia, the demand for compounds and fillings [cocoa powder based products] is much higher than for 'real' chocolate [cocoa butter]. In Europe, the market consists more of real chocolate and I'm not sure whether Petra foods has fully adapted to that.
• John Chuang (CEO): Petra's board has debated on whether to seperate the consumer and ingredients business, but a decision has yet to be made.