Cadbury plc

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Companies

Cadbury Schweppes plc is a confectionery and beverage company with its headquarters in Berkeley Square, London, England, UK. Cadbury Schweppes is currently the only major international confectionery manufacturer to produce Fairtrade or organic products, which it sells through its subsidiary company Green & Black's.

Corporate history

Schweppes

Johann Jacob Schweppe (born 1740 in Witzenhausen, Hesse, Germany; died 1821 in Geneva) was a German watchmaker and silversmith. He developed a method to charge water with carbon dioxide gas. Schweppe patented this method in 1783, some time after Joseph Priestley discovered a method to carbonate water. Carbonated water was originally produced for medical use. In 1790, Schweppe founded a factory to produce soda water on London's Drury Lane.

Cadbury's

Independently, in 1824, John Cadbury began vending tea, coffee, and (later) chocolate at Bull Street in Birmingham in the UK and sometimes in India. The company was then known as Cadbury Brothers Limited.

After John Cadbury's retirement, his sons, Richard and George, opened a major factory in the purpose-built suburb of Bournville, four miles south of the city.

After World War I, Cadbury Brothers Limited undertook a financial merger with J.S. Fry & Sons Limited.

Merger

The two companies merged to form Cadbury Schweppes in 1969.

Domestic and international subsidiaries

United Kingdom

Cadbury UK also owns Trebor Bassett, Fry's, Maynards and Halls. The confectionery business in the UK is known as Cadbury Trebor Bassett and, as of August 2004, had eight factories and 3,000 staff in the UK. Biscuits bearing the Cadbury brand, such as Cadbury Fingers, are produced under licence by Burton's Foods. Cadbury's cakes and chocolate spread are manufactured under licence by Premier Foods but the cakes were originally part of Cadbury Foods Ltd with factories at Blackpole in Worcester and Moreton on The Wirral with distribution depots throughout the UK.

Canada

Cadbury Beverages Canada Inc., based in Mississauga, Ontario is the company's Canadian subsidiary for beverage related products while Cadbury Adams is the company's Canadian confectionery subsidiary, based in Toronto. Most brands and products match those in the UK; the chocolate bar line was rebranded in late 2005 to the UK-standard purple wrapper theme.

United States

The Cadbury Schweppes company's presence in the United States consists of the beverage unit Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, and confectionery unit Cadbury Adams. Cadbury merged with Peter Paul in 1978, Although Cadbury Schweppes chocolate products have been sold in the U.S. since 1988 under the Cadbury trademark name, the chocolate itself has been manufactured by Hershey's and can be found in Hershey's chocolate stores. In 1982, Cadbury Schweppes purchased the Duffy-Mott Company. In early 2006, all of Mott's beverage brands ( Grandma's Molasses, Hawaiian Punch, IBC Root Beer, Mr and Mrs T Bloody Mary mix, Orangina, and Yoo-hoo) were folded into Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages. Mott's continues to operate as a separate unit of Cadbury Schweppes.

Elsewhere

Cadbury also operates factories in Alexandria, Cairo and Ramadan City (Egypt), Barcelona (Spain), Warsaw (Poland), Dublin (Ireland), Dunedin (New Zealand), Port Elizabeth (South Africa), Mexico City (Mexico), Ringwood (Melbourne, Australia) and Claremont ( Hobart, Australia).

Schweppes

Cadbury Schweppes does not manufacture Schweppes beverages for Brazil, Hong Kong, Mexico, Ireland, New Zealand, and Romania. In the United Kingdom and Serbia they are produced by The Coca-Cola Company and, in Poland, by PepsiCo.

Accounting

In May 2006, Cadbury Schweppes announced that it would be outsourcing its transactional accounting and order capture functions to Shared Business Services (SBS) centres run by a company called Genpact, (a businesses services provider) in India, China, and Romania. This was to affect all business units and be associated with US and UK functions being transferred to India by end of 2006, with all units transferred by mid-2008. Depending on the success of this move, other accounting Human Resources functions may follow. This development is likely to lead to the loss of several hundred jobs worldwide, but also to several hundred jobs being created, at lower salaries commensurate with wages paid in developing countries.

Demerger

In March 2007, it was revealed that Cadbury Schweppes is planning to split its business into two separate entities: one focusing on its main chocolate and confectionery market; the other on its US drinks business. It is speculated that the split could dramatically increase Cadbury's value, from its current market value of about £12,600 million, to up to an estimated £16,000 million combined value.

In October 2007, Cadbury announced the closure of the Keynsham chocolate factory, formerly part of Fry's. Between 500 and 700 jobs would be affected by this change. Production will be transferred to other plants in England and Poland.

Products

Cadbury Schweppes produces beverages, chocolates and sweets/candies such as the popular 'Dairy Milk'.