RESILIENCE THAT TRANSCENDS BORDERS
MegaMex products carry the quality, flavor and versatility of Mexican food across the United States. MegaMex takes the spirit of Mexico to every table with a diversified and attractive portfolio.
In 2017, MegaMex net sales reached 12,168 million pesos, a growth of 12.3 percent over the previous year. During the year, we gained share in different markets around the United States, as a result of the following activities:
Wholly Guacamole created the Guac Stops Summer 2017 program, installing a public guacamole bar where people could try our product varieties in different ways. Through the initiative, we gave out more than 24,000 guacamole samples, which were received enthusiastically by consumers.
La Victoria celebrated its one-hundredth year with the participation of artists, chefs and musicians. During the festivities, we gave out 200,000 product samples, enabling us to spread our incomparable flavor.
Grupo Herdez teamed up with Disney Pixar for the distribution of the animated film, “Coco”, whose great success was a unique opportunity to spread our message of authentic Mexican food to a broad audience. In many ways, Disney Pixar’s treatment of the Day of the Dead is a reflection of our brand’s intention with respect to real Mexican food.
Among our activities to bring Mexican food to the United States, we celebrated 5 de mayo with a live Facebook event featuring the famous chef Marcela Valladolid, who prepared original Mexican recipes such as esquites (corn kernels topped with cream, cheese and chili), tacos al pastor (with spit-grilled meat), tacos gobernador (with shrimp, peppers and cheese) and queso fundido (melted cheese), all accompanied by our iconic Herdez guacamole salsa. More than 50,000 people connected to the event, and a further 500,000 potential consumers are expected to view it online.
Doña María launched a campaign to promote and preserve Mexican culture, offering four packaging versions with designs of the traditional Mexican Maria dolls.
Committed to our goal of reaching one billion dollars in net sales by 2020, we continue our United as One program to improve teamwork and promote inclusion, expansion of channels, innovation and the creation of new initiatives.
The operating plan to achieve our goal is based on five main pillars:
Increase sales by means of innovation and the expansion of channels.
- Accelerate brand growth.
- Improve gross margins through efficient portfolio management.
- Reduce general expenses as a proportion of net sales.
- Reduce production costs.
During the second quarter, we created MegaMex International, whose approach is to take the spirit of Mexico beyond the United States.
Our objective with MegaMex International is to deploy a business model that will give us presence in different countries, including Australia, Canada, Chile, England, New Zealand and other South American nations, developing retail, price clubs and food service, among other channels.
During the trial period, Wholly Guacamole and Don Miguel were well received in price clubs and retail outlets in Canada. Trials were also conducted in the food service channel in Canada and Costa Rica.