Sorry, what a bad headline. I’m so not a journalist. Few people in the UK are happy that Cadbury ended up being sold to Kraft. There is a very big risk that the company’s well-known brand’s will not get the attention they deserve in a big food company. It is clear from an article I read in the Financial Times Magazine this weekend that the entire company had been mismanaged for years.
This whole sense of sadness is compounded by the fact that Kraft are clearly not going to keep to their word. In October 2009, the American food giant said it would keep the Keynsham plant open but the firm has gone against this.
Cadbury’s new owner, Kraft, confirmed yesterday that it plans to close the company’s Somerdale factory in Keynsham – well no surprises there then.
The news means the loss of 400 jobs and will end a long-running campaign to keep it open. The plant had been earmarked for closure by Cadbury but Kraft’s takeover of the company had raised hopes of a new future.
The move comes just weeks after Cadbury’s chairman told the BBC that job losses were an “inevitability” after a takeover by the US giant.
Just such a shame. Yet another British icon bites the dust.
I am NOT going to be buying Cadbury’s eggs this Easter. How many British chocolate makers do we have left? Willie Harcourt- Couze? Rococco? Who else?
North West London Girl In The Country
March 17, 2010I feel quite cross about this takeover, I don’t normally pay too much attention to takeovers (I leave that to Handsome Husband), but being a chocolate lover, sad but true, I feel that a good old British company has been not only shafted by Kraft but also by the mangement. Dreadful, and as for that slime ball Peter Mandelson saying “we have assurances jobs will be protected” how can anyone ever believe a word that man says….
Phew that’s the rant over and now I shall sit with my tea and chocolate and browse through your gorgeous blog x
London Dad
March 17, 2010It is not all bad. Cadburys was sold at a high price which is ultimately beneficial to its shareholders, many of which were our nation’s pension funds. Warren Buffett owns 10% of Kraft and publicly criticised Irene Rosenfeld, the Kraft CEO, for over paying with a “blank cheque”. Thus when it came to the price paid, it is Great Britain 1, USA 0. The economy continuously creates new businesses and destroys old ones in the process, just as happens in nature. Britain will continue to make chocolate and the more damage Kraft does to the Cadbury brand, the more opportunity there will be for entrepreneurs to take them on. However, it is a human tragedy for the people of Keynsham who will lose their jobs. On that point I agree, and Kraft are doing the typical and predictable MBA thing of cutting costs. It is inevitable that over time the quality will suffer and our childhood favourite treat will melt away. So how can we buy shares in Rococco and its friends? Who knows, perhaps there could even be a new factory in Keynsham.
Family Affairs
March 17, 2010Yup. Rococo shares. That’s the answer Lx
Jon Storey
March 19, 2010Sad as I was to see the demise of Cadbury but it has to be said that Cadbury chocolate has been rubbish for years, not a patch on other some other British companies. Certainly not to be compared in a favourable light with much continental chocolate.
On a recent visit to Cologne No1 Daughter and I went to the Lindt Museum, ahh heaven!
Muddling Along Mummy
March 22, 2010I think its crazy that Kraft can go back on its word like this – surely part of the agreement by shareholders to the take over was the continuation of the UK jobs and plants. Can they not be held to their promises ?
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