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Cadbury's headquarters
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company wholly owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars. Cadbury is internationally headquartered in Uxbridge, west London, and operates in more than 50 countries worldwide. It is known for its Dairy Milk chocolate, the Creme Egg and Roses selection box, and many other confectionery products. One of the best-known British brands, in 2013 The Daily Telegraph named Cadbury among Britain's most successful exports.
Cadbury was established in Birmingham, England in 1824, by John Cadbury who sold tea, coffee and drinking chocolate. Cadbury developed the business with his brother Benjamin, followed by his sons Richard and George. George developed the Bournville estate, a model village designed to give the company's workers improved living conditions. Dairy Milk chocolate, introduced in 1905, used a higher proportion of milk within the recipe compared with rival products. By 1914, the chocolate was the company's best-selling product. Cadbury, alongside Rowntree's and Fry's, were the big three British confectionery manufacturers throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Cadbury was granted its first Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1854. It has been a holder of a Royal Warrant from Elizabeth II since 1955. Cadbury merged with J. S. Fry & Sons in 1919, and Schweppes in 1969, known as Cadbury Schweppes until 2008, when the American beverage business was split as Dr Pepper Snapple Group; the rights ownership of the Schweppes brand had already differed between various countries since 2006. Cadbury was a constant constituent of the FTSE 100 on the London Stock Exchange from the index's 1984 inception until the company was bought by Kraft Foods in 2010.
History[]
1800-1900: Early history[]
In 1824, John Cadbury, a Quaker, began selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate in Bull Street in Birmingham, England. From 1831 he moved into the production of a variety of cocoa and drinking chocolates, made in a factory in Bridge Street and sold mainly to the wealthy because of the high cost of production. In 1847, John Cadbury became a partner with his brother Benjamin and the company became known as "Cadbury Brothers". In 1847, Cadbury's competitor Fry's of Bristol produced the first chocolate bar (which would be mass-produced as Fry's Chocolate Cream in 1866). Cadbury introduced his brand of the chocolate bar in 1849, and that same year, Cadbury and Fry's chocolate bars were displayed publicly at a trade fair in Bingley Hall, Birmingham. The Cadbury brothers opened an office in London, and in 1854 they received the Royal Warrant as manufacturers of chocolate and cocoa to Queen Victoria. The company went into decline in the late 1850s. 1891 advertisement John Cadbury's sons Richard and George took over the business in 1861. At the time of the takeover, the business was in rapid decline: the number of employees had reduced from 20 to 11, and the company was losing money. By 1866, Cadbury was profitable again. The brothers had turned around the business by moving the focus from tea and coffee to chocolate, and by increasing the quality of their products. Cadbury Factory, Bournville is located on the south side of Birmingham, England The firm's first major breakthrough occurred in 1866 when Richard and George introduced an improved cocoa into Britain. A new cocoa press developed in the Netherlands removed some of the unpalatable cocoa butter from the cocoa bean. The firm began exporting its products in the 1850s. In 1861, the company created Fancy Boxes — a decorated box of chocolates — and in 1868 they were sold in boxes in the shape of a heart for Valentine's Day. Boxes of filled chocolates quickly became associated with the holiday.
Manufacturing their first Easter egg in 1875, Cadbury created the modern chocolate Easter egg after developing a pure cocoa butter that could be moulded into smooth shapes. By 1893, Cadbury had 19 different varieties of chocolate Easter egg on sale.
In 1878, the brothers decided to build new premises in countryside four miles from Birmingham. The move to the countryside was unprecedented in business. Better transport access for milk that was inward shipped by canal, and cocoa that was brought in by rail from London, Southampton and Liverpool docks was taken into consideration. With the development of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway along the path of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, they acquired the Bournbrook estate, comprising 14.5 acres (5.9 ha) of countryside 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the outskirts of Birmingham. Located next to the Stirchley Street railway station, which itself was opposite the canal, they renamed the estate Bournville and opened the Bournville factory the following year.
In 1893, George Cadbury bought 120 acres (49 ha) of land close to the works and planned, at his own expense, a model village which would 'alleviate the evils of modern more cramped living conditions'. By 1900 the estate included 314 cottages and houses set on 330 acres (130 ha) of land. As the Cadbury family were Quakers there were no pubs in the estate.
In 1897, following the lead of Swiss companies, Cadbury introduced its own line of milk chocolate bars. In 1899 Cadbury became a private limited company.
1900-1969[]
n 1905, Cadbury launched its Dairy Milk bar, a production of exceptional quality with a higher proportion of milk than previous chocolate bars. Developed by George Cadbury Jr, it was the first time a British company had been able to mass-produce milk chocolate. From the beginning, it had the distinctive purple wrapper. It was a great sales success, and became the company's best selling product by 1914. The stronger Bournville Cocoa line was introduced in 1906. Cadbury Dairy Milk and Bournville Cocoa were to provide the basis for the company's rapid pre-war expansion. In 1910, Cadbury sales overtook those of Fry for the first time.
Cadbury's Milk Tray was first produced in 1915 and continued in production throughout the remainder of the First World War. More than 2,000 of Cadbury's male employees joined the British Armed Forces, and to support the British war effort, Cadbury provided chocolate, books and clothing to the troops. George Cadbury handed over two company-owned buildings for use as hospitals – "The Beeches" and "Fircroft", and the management of both hospitals earned the War Office's highest award. Factory girls, dubbed 'The Cadbury Angels', volunteered to do the laundry of injured soldiers recovering in the hospitals. After the war, the Bournville factory was redeveloped and mass production began in earnest. In 1918, Cadbury opened their first overseas factory in Hobart, Tasmania. Cadbury Wharf, Knighton, Staffordshire. It was operated by Cadbury between 1911 and 1961 to process locally collected milk and produce "chocolate crumb" which was transported to Cadbury's in Bournville. In 1919, Cadbury merged with J. S. Fry & Sons, another leading British chocolate manufacturer, resulting in the integration of well-known brands such as Fry's Chocolate Cream and Fry's Turkish Delight. In 1921, the many small Fry's factories around Bristol were closed down, and production was consolidated at a new Somerdale Factory, outside Bristol.
Cadbury expanded its product range with Flake (1920), Creme eggs (1923), Fruit and Nut (1928), and Crunchie (1929, originally under the Fry's label). By 1930, Cadbury was the 24th-largest British manufacturing company as measured by estimated market value of capital. Cadbury took direct control of the under-performing Fry in 1935. Dairy Milk Whole Nut arrived in 1933, and tins of Roses were introduced in 1938. Roses has become a very popular Christmas (and Mother's Day) gift.
Chocolate ceased to be a luxury product and became affordable to the working classes for the first time. By the mid-1930s, Cadbury estimated that 90 percent of the British population could afford to buy chocolate. By 1936, Dairy Milk accounted for 60 percent of the UK milk chocolate market.
During World War II, parts of the Bournville factory were turned over to war work, producing milling machines and seats for fighter aircraft. Workers ploughed football fields to plant crops. As chocolate was regarded as an essential food, it was placed under government supervision for the entire war. The wartime rationing of chocolate ended in 1950, and normal production resumed. Cadbury subsequently invested in new factories and had an increasing demand for their products. In 1952 the Moreton factory was built.
Cadbury has been a holder of a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II since 1955. In 1967, Cadbury acquired an Australian confectioner, MacRobertson's, beating a rival bid from Mars. As a result of the takeover, Cadbury built a 60 percent market share in the Australian market.
2007-2010[]
In October 2007, Cadbury announced the closure of the Somerdale Factory, in Keynsham, Somerset, formerly part of Fry's. Between 500 and 700 jobs were affected by this change. Production transferred to other plants in England and Poland.
In 2008, Monkhill Confectionery, the Own Label trading division of Cadbury Trebor Bassett was sold to Tangerine Confectionery for £58 million cash. This sale included factories at Pontefract, Cleckheaton and York and a distribution centre near Chesterfield, and the transfer of around 800 employees.
In mid-2009, Cadbury replaced some of the cocoa butter in their non-UK chocolate products with palm oil. Despite stating this was a response to consumer demand to improve taste and texture, there was no "new improved recipe" claim placed on New Zealand labels. Consumer backlash was significant from environmentalists and chocolate lovers in both Australia and New Zealand, with consumers objecting to both the taste from the cheaper formulation, and the use of palm oil given its role in the destruction of rainforests. By August 2009, the company announced that it was reverting to the use of cocoa butter in New Zealand and Australia, although palm oil is still listed as an ingredient in Cadbury's flavoured sugar syrup based fillings (where it referred to as 'vegetable oil'). In addition, Cadbury stated they would source cocoa beans through Fair Trade channels. In January 2010 prospective buyer Kraft pledged to honour Cadbury's commitment.