2021 INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT
We develop
our brands
We provide solutions for the daily life of our customers by offering them variety and convenience for different lifestyles and times of the day. The work of our team of collaborators, every year, promotes the positioning of our broad portfolio of trademarks and products.
25
brands
12
new brands within our distribution agreements in Mexico
+1, 300
products
+30
categories in our portfolio
70%
of categories increased market share
99%
penetration in Mexican homes
Our brands in Mexico
Our brands in the United States
Distribution agreements
The Preserves segment grew 8.0% to $20,977 million pesos in sales, driven by price increases in the past twelve months, and a volume in line with last year. The categories with the best performance were mayonnaise, ketchup, tea, and tomato puree. Additionally, we were able to increase our market share in 70% of the main categories in which we participate.
We celebrate 80 years of the legacy of Doña María® with the inauguration of Casa Doña María Pons in San Luis Potosí since it is the city where aunt María, who created our traditional mole recipe, was born, and where one of the most important work centers of Grupo Herdez in Mexico is located. In addition to this, the book “Una empresaria pionera en San Luis Potosí: María Pons Nicoux” was published, a historical investigation of the Herdez Foundation that tells the origins and unequaled contribution of one of the most important women of Grupo Herdez.
Doña María® has accompanied three different generations throughout its 80 years of existence, in times of celebration and family union. Through the authentic flavor of traditional Mexican recipes, it has sought to maintain our cuisine relevant and increase its consumption in homes, mainly with new generations that spend less and less time in the kitchen.
Currently, the brand has four product lines in Mexico: mole paste, artisanal recipe mole paste, ready-to-serve mole (liquid), sauces for casseroles, in addition to nopalitos for the export market.
The Impulse segment —where we now integrate our ice cream and retail businesses— grew 25.5%, reaching $3,273 million pesos, due to the return of in-store traffic, and the incorporation of new businesses, in addition to price increases, such as in Preserves. This segment is not really in a growth stage, but rather in recovery, after being affected by the social restrictions of the pandemic in 2020.
Thanks to our customers, Cielito Querido Café® has become a benchmark in terms of coffee, with products including hot, cold, icy beverages, snacks, and food, among others.
In 2021, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the brand with different actions that reinforced and highlighted its Mexican values:
- Launch of the Talento Caído del Cielo platform, where 10 Mexican artists painted 10 murals in the most iconic locations of Cielito Querido Café® coffee shops in Mexico City.
- Launch of the Talento Caído del Cielo contest, with which we sought to support Mexican talent, by inviting emerging artists to join this platform. The more than 350 participants had the opportunity to let their imagination run free, designing the coffee cups of the brand for 2022.
- Relaunch of the Cielito Querido Café® app, where we hold the loyalty program platform.
Since 2009, we expand to the United States the most iconic and most representative flavors of Mexican cuisine through MegaMex, in alliance with Hormel Foods. The net sales of MegaMex remained in line with the previous year, for a total of $14,665 million pesos, and this year we introduced products of the Búfalo® and Del Fuerte® brands for the North American market.
To continue with the thrill of our Doña María® 2020 lottery game, we expanded our Mexican lottery edition glass collection with four new designs.
Through the social media of the brand in the United States, we presented our new glasses and launched specific playlists for each design.
We promoted the launch of our avocado hot sauce: HERDEZ® Avocado Hot Sauce, with a media campaign: Avocado Found its Fire™. In this campaign, we presented an alebrije that took our audience on a trip to find the hidden treasure HERDEZ® Avocado Hot Sauce.
With this launch, we won the 2021 Editors Pick award from Progressive Grocers, which recognizes the new US market products that offer innovation, impact, and added value for consumers.
HERDEZ®
Top 5 strongest Mexican brands by Brand Finance
DEL FUERTE® y HERDEZ®
among the 50 most chosen brands in Mexico by Kantar
BARILLA®,
CIELITO QUERIDO CAFÉ®, McCORMICK® y NUTRISA®
in the ranking of top digital brands of Merca 2.0
GRUPO HERDEZ
Vendor of the Year of Zorro Abarrotero
HERDEZ®
Top 50 most valuable Mexican brands by Brand Finance
McCORMICK®
among the 50 most chosen brands in Latin America by Kantar
AIRES DE CAMPO®
“Best healthy brand” in BienPremios 2021
GRUPO HERDEZ
Vendor of the Year of Sam’s Club Mexico
*A product is considered an “innovation” during the 5 years following its launch.
INNOVATION
We work under a culture of innovation based on consumer listening to address the needs of our customers, the market, and the industry. Through our Innovation department, we capitalize on trends and the uncovered needs of our customers to generate differentiated products and communications, that drive the growth of our different product categories.
Our five strategic guiding principles:
1
Maintain and form companies through intelligence development.
2
Implement technologies that enable to accelerate communication processes with consumers, for innovation, and transactions.
3
Promote sustainable management, prioritizing caring for water and efficient use of energy.
4
Supporting and generating growth through talent development and infrastructure investment.
5
Exercising responsible corporate citizenship, promoting social development initiatives.
In 2021, we developed product concepts under the Herdez® canned vegetables, and McCormick® spices and mustard innovation strategy, through a challenge to a community of more than 138,000 creatives in alliance with CAMBAS.
For the purpose of capitalizing on food and functional beverage trends, we launched a line of whole wheat pasta prepared with 100% whole wheat. Since it is only made of wheat, it contributes three times more fiber, maintaining the flavor and consistency of Barilla® pasta that you already know.
For the purpose of taking the Cielito Querido Café® flavors beyond coffee shops, introducing the brand into the price club sale channel, we launched ice creams with the iconic flavors of our cafeterias such as Horchata mi Cielo, and in the framework of emblematic Mexican dates, with the Pan de Muerto and Rosca de Reyes flavors. We also entered the ready-to-drink beverage category with three varieties from our coffee shops, now available in the self-service channel, café de olla, café lechero, and horchata.
For the purpose of capitalizing on food and functional beverage trends, we launched the Matcha McCormick® tea line. Matcha is considered a superfood with a high amount of antioxidants, and additionally, it has no sugar. Given its delicious flavor, it serves to prepare numerous recipes, from desserts to dressings and breakfasts, among others.
With this launch, in one year, McCormick® has positioned itself as one of the most relevant brands in the matcha tea segment.
As industry leaders, we are always aware of the trends and initiatives on which our leadership is built. In 2021, we launched a line of marmalades based on our Mexican roots, “Flavors of Mexico”.
This launch was a delicious mix of the most representative flavors of the category and of the different regions of our country: strawberry guava, strawberry hibiscus, and strawberry mango.
By implementing a 360o campaign, which included a campaign of outside advertising, digital initiatives, point-of-sale materials, and an alliance with the Herdez Foundation, we invited several influencers to experiment with unique and fun recipes to share the products with their followers.
In November 2021, McCormick® entered the dip category with the “Mayodips” line. Taking advantage of McCormick®’s leadership in the mayonnaise segment, Mayodips were displayed on the same shelves as its regular mayos, generating cross-sales with different categories such as snacks, wings, boneless, and vegetables.
Mayodips are available in three flavors: creamy onion, parmesan cheese, and esquites, in supermarkets and convenience stores.
The launch was advertised through the “Mayodip your craving” (“Mayodipea a tu antojo”) campaign, with point-of-sale material support, outside advertising, influencers, digital communication, and sponsorship of “AAA” lucha libre.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
35%
of self-service customers within the Artificial Intelligence (IA) platform
98%
certainty in volume forecasts made with AI
32.8%
increase in e-commerce sales volume
+170 mil
downloads of the Cielito Querido Café® and Nutrisa® apps
1700
hours of training for the in-house team in digital architecture, app development, AI, and Big Data
2020 set the stage for our digital transformation, a key to keeping in contact with our customers. The alliance with one of the largest technology leaders in the world accelerated the initiatives that now open the door for us to new sales channels and more efficient operations, with the use of artificial intelligence.
In 2021, we increased our e-commerce sales volume by 32.8%, thanks to the initiative of our sales team to offer our portfolio in the digital channels of our clients, introducing us to new e-commerce platforms. At the closing of the year, 2.1% of sales of the Preserves segment came from e-commerce.
Additionally, we developed our second own e-commerce platform of the Group, with the online Nutrisa® store, which will offer around 500 products in the food, beverages, personal care, and wellbeing products, among others.
In addition to this, we updated the apps through which we manage the loyalty programs in our Cielito Querido Café® and Nutrisa® retail brands, improving the experience of our in-store customers.
Likewise, we created an artificial neural network that predicts our sales in certain categories and clients with 98% certainty. This enables us to optimize inventories and to increase the effectiveness of our operations and investments at points of sale.