Cadbury sale not the last sweet in the packet

Today the Cadbury's board finally caved into an increased bid by the US food conglomerate Kraft. Unable to trust its shareholders to resist Kraft's offer, the UK chocolate manufacturer's board announced its support for the £11.5bn bid, worth 840p per share. This is a reminder that companies exist to create shareholder value, whatever their cultural role may be. The sale has not been popular in the UK media and with the UK government, with Enterprise Secretary Lord Mandelson, and then the Prime Minister himself warning Kraft that they do not want to see cuts in employment or production in the Cadbury business. However, perhaps Mandelson and Brown should not panic. We have been here before. Although Kraft purchased Terry's of York, the manufacturers of chocolate oranges in 1993 only to close UK production down in 2005, overseas multinationals generally have good form in the UK confectionery industry. In 1988 Rowntree Mackintosh, then the second largest UK manufacturer after Cadbury, was purchased by Nestle. Although Nestle stopped the UK production of Smarties at the Rowntree factory in York in 2006, the company continues to manufacture such best sellers as KitKat, Aero and Rolo chocolates in York, along with other sweets such as Fruit Pastilles, among others. Its also worth mentioning that the US company Mars has been producing chocolate at its Slough factory since 1932, with little production moved abroad. While chocolate is a commodity product of sorts, to improve the bars still relies on high level food science of the sort found in advanced economies such as the UK. Access to local supplies of milk is also important, while Cadbury's Bourneville factory in Birmingham remains ideally placed for food distribution. The UK remains an advanced market which demands luxury foodstuffs such as chocolate and there is little sign that demand is decreasing. Chocolate manufacture is an industry that is likely to remain in the UK for a long time to come.

Research Note: The Business Archives Council is currently acting to secure the Cadbury's archive.

Cadbury - end of ethics?

This week the UK chocolate and confectionery manufacturer Cadbury, manufacturer of the iconic Dairy Milk brand among others advised its shareholders to accept a hostile take-over bid from US food conglomerate Kraft Foods. With Kraft's US rivals Hershey also entering the fray it would appear that Cadbury's existence as an independent is likely to come to an end after 185 years. British chocolate eaters will fear that the distinctive taste of Cadbury's products may be under threat; however the ethical stance of Cadbury's, something relatively rare in the food market, may also be under threat.

Quaker Chocolate maker John Cadbury first opened a shop in Birmingham in 1824 to sell drinking chocolate. By 1831 he had started manufacturing; the company remained a family concern and by 1879 Cadbury's sons established a new factory on a green field site at Bourneville, on the outskirts of the city, where it continues to manufacture today. At Bourneville the company established one of the 'model villages' of the nineteenth century for its workers, building detached houses with gardens (unusual in what was otherwise a crowded industrial city), as well as providing pension schemes, education, training and health schemes for employees.

It seems likely that such benefits were not extended to the firm's suppliers in the then British colony of Ghana in West Africa; but under ethical pressure in early 2009 the firm announced that it was moving to Fairtrade certification of its Dairy Milk brand. The Fairtrade Foundation aims to guarantee that farmers working for Cadbury in Ghana receive a fair living wage. Cadbury are rare among mid market chocolate makers in adopting Fairtrade, which is usually reserved for the high end manufacturers. It will be interesting to see whether or not Kraft or Herschey will value the Dairy Milk brand enough to retain its Fairtrade status; if they are wise they will continue with this as part of a premium international image for Dairy Milk, as well as continuing its manufacture at Bourneville, a crucial part of its 'Made in Britain' image.