Toni is moving into the non-dairy market, one of more than 60 innovations the brand has made since the pandemic

Tonicorp launched its new Toni Semillas product line on the Ecuadorian market last July, the brand’s first 100% dairy-free drink, in line with the latest consumer trends. Alfredo Rodríguez, director of marketing and commercial strategy at Tonicorp, said that the company, with more than four decades in the Ecuadorian market, reinvented itself and began a process of innovation to offer these new products with the medium-term objective of strengthening its exports. to markets such as the United States, Panama and Spain.

What did Toni see to make this shift in her portfolio to dairy-free beverages?

As a priority, the consumer is at the center of the development of every innovation. One of the great things about the brand – after 45 years in the market – is that we have recognized these trends and are constantly listening to them. There are four main polarities affecting the world of dairy products and seed drinks, one is that the consumer is looking for more detailed nutrition, people are more aware of what they consume. The second is related to polarization in the economic sense; There are consumers who have less and need more nutrition; and there are people who have more purchasing power and are even looking for a plus, but that’s not where they come from.

Another trend is that the consumer is more informed, connected to each other through social networks, the digital world, and the last big macrotrend is related to the awareness of sustainability, of social responsibility.

And specifically in Ecuador, which trends are reflected the most?

In particular, in Ecuador we have a population that has an increasingly long life expectancy, and it is also known that from a certain age they show resistance and intolerance to certain ingredients such as lactose, (this) forces certain consumers to look for alternatives, including lactose. Lactose-free milk, then drinks from seeds are one of the new alternatives.

Are these new seed drink alternatives just for the Ecuadorian market?

Yes, we currently only have it in Ecuador. Part of the things we are continuously working on is to have products that we can even export. We have an important presence in the United States with our Toni brand, with oats, with flavored milk, and we are also present in Panama with gelatin, with coffee in Colombia… We intend to reach more and more international markets and carry the Toni brand. Where is the Ecuadorian?

And according to these traditional lines, how is the export going?

We have made a lot of progress, we are about to travel with one of the partners we have in the United States to look for opportunities to expand our portfolio mainly in that market, which has such a strong scale because of the presence of the Ecuadorian migrant community. We are also recently opening the Spanish market with oats, but we also depend a lot on foreign legislation, there are countries that do not import any dairy products and we are looking for countries that have that flexibility, and even our products and technology allow us to comply with the United States FDA regulations, which is quite strict regulation.

What other products will Toni produce in this seed category?

Not to spoil it, but we will have new seeds, in addition to almonds and vanilla almonds; We will have new variants of the same almond in flavors and calorie content with versions without sugar and other types of seeds like oats, coconut etc.

Will these new flavors come out this year?

They will come out in 2024, and in the future we will have more campaigns, more activities in the categories of yogurt, ice cream, fruit trees, etc.

What was the innovation process like in developing this new category?

Four and a half years ago, we embarked on the research idea of ​​creating a variant and all that analysis to understand whether Toni has a reason to exist in the world outside of dairy products. Our category and our brand already today has a portfolio based on dairy products, gelatins, we have ice creams without milk, so we said: I think there is room and we went for a review with the consumer, different prototypes, formulas, with household panels that have already consumed the category, we tested to find the ideal of the Ecuadorian palate.

Where does the raw material for these new products come from?

We have a source of inputs that come from abroad mainly because of the kind of quality of almonds, but part of what we are looking for in the medium and long term is to develop local products from those seeds. Currently, almonds come from the United States.

Where do you think the food and beverage industry in general is going with these new trends in healthier products?

There are two accelerators that happened recently: technology and food, all because of the health emergency we had in 2020. People were much more aware of the possibility of guaranteeing their health by what they consume. The industry, in general, the commitment we have made, at least Toni, is to guarantee that we can deliver the best taste with a very high nutritional contribution, even trying to address the trends of reducing ingredients. In 2020, we started that big step with a product called Tonino, which is the first children’s milk product without added sugar, without preservatives and without aromas.

More innovation?

Yes, rounding up the numbers, we have generated more than 60 innovations since February 2020 till now with this reinvention that we have given them in terms of sizes, packaging, brands; Let’s consume Toni and in the spectrum of ice cream…, it is one of the great achievements that we have been able to achieve in a short period of time, since we are able to reinvent ourselves and bring growth to the organization.

Speaking of growth, what is Toni’s current production in all categories?

Because of the big drop that was in 2020 because of the contraction of the industry, because of people being at home, the consumer base of dairy products in personal sizes was very much lost as people started looking more for family sizes for higher performance. Our reference is to return to the base of 2019, last year we were above the base of 2019 for the last three months, we still have not finished the recovery of the base of 2019 and our challenge this year is to close above the base of 2019 and what suits us will lead to growth slightly above 5%, and revenues will be higher, in double digits, between 11% and 12%.

How much did consumption fall during the pandemic?

Of what the industry registered, 30%. Since consumer habits have also changed, the entire industry had to be reinvented and many competitors who were not normally in the categories we were in started to have variants.