Mondelez Added 100,000 Indian Stores in One Quarter While European Pricing Turned Negative

Mondelez put its snacks into 100,000 more Indian shops in three months. In Brazil it crossed one million stores. Those two numbers explain the second quarter better than any brand campaign the company ran, and they point at the biggest quiet change in how large food businesses now grow.

One half sold more. The other half sold the same.

The owner of Oreo, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Ritz and Milka reported net revenue of $9,355m for the quarter to 30 June 2026, up 4.1%. Organic net revenue, which strips out currency and deals, rose 2.2%. Underneath that single average sit two businesses moving in opposite directions.

Emerging markets delivered $3,909m of revenue and organic growth of 4.4%, with volume and mix adding 1.6 percentage points and pricing 2.8. Developed markets delivered $5,446m, organic growth of 0.7%, and volume and mix of exactly zero. Every point of growth in the richer half of the portfolio came from price, and none of it came from anyone eating more.

Asia, Middle East and Africa was the standout, with organic growth of 7.1% built mostly on volume and mix of 5.2 points. Latin America grew 8.4% organically, though 7.9 of those points were price. North America returned to 3.4% organic growth with volume and mix positive at 1.2 points, and the company said it gained share in every category there.

Half the growth is new customers, not fuller baskets

On the 28 July call, chief executive Dirk Van de Put gave analysts the number that matters. In markets such as India and China, roughly half of revenue growth consistently comes from shops that were not customers a year earlier. India added 100,000 outlets in the quarter to reach around 400,000. Brazil passed the million mark. Van de Put described the pattern as structural rather than cyclical, which is a polite way of saying the growth is bought with vans, coolers, credit terms and salespeople rather than with advertising.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Growth from new outlets is a sales and logistics achievement. Growth from existing outlets is a brand achievement. They cost different money, they need different skills, and they stop for different reasons. A company that adds 100,000 shops in a quarter has a finite runway, because eventually the map fills up. A company whose existing shoppers buy more has no ceiling at all.

In Europe, the price lever went into reverse

Europe remains the largest region at $3,377m of revenue, and it went backwards. Organic revenue fell 3.5%, with volume and mix down 2.1 points. Pricing in Europe was negative 1.4 points, which means the company sold at lower prices than a year ago and still shifted fewer units.

Management blamed the summer heatwave for weak chocolate sales and pointed to subdued consumer confidence, energy costs and a broad shift into value products. Volumes should recover in the second half, Van de Put said, helped by easier comparisons and activity behind Biscoff and Milka. The wider signal is harder to argue with. Price has been the main growth engine across packaged food since 2021. In the biggest region of one of the biggest snacking companies in the world, it has stopped being one.

Reach costs margin before it pays

The reported figures look spectacular. Gross margin of 42.6%, up 9.9 percentage points. Operating margin of 20.8%, up 7.8 points. Diluted earnings per share of $1.20, up 144.9%, flattered heavily by swings in commodity and currency derivatives.

The adjusted figures describe the actual operating year. Adjusted gross margin rose 0.2 points to 34.0%. Adjusted operating margin fell 1.2 points to 13.1%. Adjusted earnings per share fell 2.7% in constant currency to $0.73. Mondelez grew its top line and shrank its operating margin in the same quarter, held back by higher raw material costs, heavier advertising and promotion, an ERP programme and extra costs from the Middle East conflict.

Cocoa has not gone away either. Operating chief Luca Zaramella flagged a below-average pod count, a short squeeze in the futures market and the risk of a strong El Nino weather event. The industry now sits on roughly ten months of forward cover, against seven months during the 2024 crisis, so the pain arrives later rather than never.

What to take from it

Mondelez raised its full-year organic revenue guidance to at least 2%, held adjusted EPS growth at flat to 5% in constant currency, kept free cash flow guidance near $3bn and lifted the dividend 4%. The company is choosing volume and reach over near-term margin, and telling investors plainly that any upside gets reinvested.

For operators, the lesson is that route to market has quietly become the highest-return investment in packaged food, and it is the one most western businesses stopped funding a decade ago. For investors, the screening question changes: ask any consumer goods company how much of its growth came from new points of sale, and how much came from the ones it already had. For buyers, assets with a built distribution network in India, Brazil, Mexico or Southeast Asia are about to get more expensive, because the acquirers have just been shown what that network is worth.