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Bambi

Prior to Salford taking control in 2004, Bambi was the number one biscuit manufacturer in Serbia. Its core brand “Plazma” was the number one confectionary brand in Serbia. With inefficient operations and a limited focus on sales and marketing Bambi faced significant challenges to its market share and growth.

Given the strength and commitment of incumbent management, limited personnel changes were made at Bambi. Instead, an effort was made by Salford to divert management’s attention to innovate, launch new products and to focus on sales and marketing.

Measures implemented included:
    • Completion of in depth strategic review with McKinsey & Co.;
    • Hiring of top international sales and marketing executives;
    • Reduction of less profitable SKU’s;
    • Sale of non core assets & businesses;
    • Continued head count reduction;
    • Re-engineering of production process;
    • Initiation of a new route to market;
    • Re-launch and extension of the iconic “Plazma” brand along with other new products and categories;
    • Expansion into other markets of former Yugoslavia.

In addition, Bambi merged with Banat (a mid size chocolate business) in order to expand chocolate capabilities to Bambi and to improve Banat’s branding and distribution.

Today Bambi is a fully restructured company with streamlined and profitable operations. It is a #1 business across all confectionery in central Balkans, and #1 or close to #2 in most important confectionery segments, including the fast-growing chocolate segment.

With developed iconic brands and proven ability to continuously renovate, innovate and launch new products (58% of revenues in 2010 are expected to come from new products launched post 2006) Bambi enjoys a very robust regional business platform going forward.