History

[edit] 1824-1900: Early history

In 1824, John Cadbury began selling tea, coffee, and drinking chocolate, which he produced himself, at Bull Street in Birmingham, England. He later 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. John Cadbury became a partner with his brother Benjamin and the company they formed was called 'Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham'.[6]

The brothers opened an office in London and in 1854 they received the Royal Warrant as manufacturers of chocolate and cocoa to Queen Victoria. In the 1850s the industry received a much needed boost, with the reduction in the high import taxes on cocoa, allowing chocolate to be more affordable to everybody.

Due to the popularity of a new expanded product line, including the "Cadbury's Cocoa Essence", the company decided to cease trading in tea in 1873. Master confectioner Frederic Kinchelman was appointed to share his recipe and production secrets with Cadbury, which led to an assortment of chocolate covered products.

Taking over the business in 1861, John Cadbury's sons Richard and George decided in 1878 that they needed new premises. 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 Stirchley Road railway station, which itself as 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 313 cottages and houses set on 330 acres (130 ha) of land. As the Cadbury family were Quakers there were no pubs in the estate;[7] in fact, it was their Quaker beliefs that first led them to sell tea, coffee and cocoa as alternatives to alcohol.[8]

[edit] 1900-2007

Somerdale Factory from 1919 merger with Fry's

In 1905, Cadbury launched its Dairy Milk bar, with a higher proportion of milk than previous chocolate bars, and it became the company's best selling product by 1913. Fruit and Nut was introduced as part of the Dairy Milk line in 1928, soon followed by Whole Nut in 1933. By this point, Cadbury was the brand leader in the United Kingdom. These were accompanied by several other products: Flake (1920), Cream-filled eggs (1923), Crunchie (1929) and Roses (1938).[9] 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 Armed Forces and to support the war effort, Cadbury provided clothing, books and chocolate to soldiers. 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 and in 1919

undertook a merger with J. S. Fry & Sons, another chocolate manufacturer, resulting in the integration of well-known brands such as Fry's Chocolate Cream and Fry's Turkish Delight.[6] 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 1949, and normal production resumed. Cadbury subsequently built new factories and had an increasing demand for their products

Manufacturing process

Cadbury Creme Eggs are manufactured as two half-egg chocolate shells, each of which is filled with a white fondant, then topped with a smaller amount of yellow fondant. Both halves are then quickly joined together and cooled, the chocolate bonding together in the process. The solid eggs are removed from the moulds and wrapped in foil.[11]

[edit] Varieties

A whole and split caramel egg

Over the years, Cadbury has introduced a number of products related to the original Creme Egg, including:

Border Creme Eggs. The first variant, wrapped in various colours of tartan foil and containing chocolate fondant. Introduced as "Fry's Border Creme Eggs" in 1970, rebranded as "Cadbury Border Creme Eggs" in 1974 and discontinued in 1981.

Mini Creme Eggs (bite-sized Creme Eggs)

Caramel Eggs (chocolate egg with a caramel filling). Launched in 1994.[3]

Mini Caramel Eggs (bite-sized Caramel Eggs)

Chocolate Creme Eggs (chocolate fondant filling)

Orange Creme Eggs (Creme Eggs with a hint of orange flavour)

'Berry' Creme Eggs (magenta wrapper and pink fondant, sold circa 1997 in Australia)

Mint Creme Eggs (green "yolk" and mint flavour chocolate)

Dairy Milk with Creme Egg bars

Creme Egg Fondant in a Narrow Cardboard Tube (limited edition)

Creme Egg ice cream with a fondant sauce in milk chocolate

Dream Eggs (New Zealand). White chocolate with white chocolate fondant filling. Discontinued in 2010.[2]

Cadbury McFlurry (British, Irish and Canadian McDonald's only) McFlurry soft serve mix with Creme Egg & chocolate filling.

Creme Egg Twisted (Britain, Ireland, Australia and Canada) Available all year round. It was introduced to Australia in 2010 but was quickly discontinued.

Holiday Ornament Creme Egg

Mad About Chocolate Egg (Australia and New Zealand). Purple wrapper, milk chocolate with chocolate fudge filling. Discontinued in 2010.[2]

Peppermint Egg (New Zealand). Discontinued in 2010.[2]

Jaffa Egg (New Zealand) Dark chocolate with orange filling

Marble Egg (New Zealand) Dairy Milk and Dream Chocolate swirled together

Screme Eggs, for Halloween market. White and green fondant filling with the same taste as the standard Creme Egg

Accounting

In July 2007, 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 U.S. and UK functions being transferred to India by the end of 2007, with all units transferred by mid-2009. 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.[59]

[edit] Products

Main article: List of Cadbury products

Major chocolate brands produced by Cadbury include the bars Dairy Milk, Crunchie, Caramel, Wispa, Boost, Picnic, Flake, Curly Wurly, Chomp, and Fudge; chocolate Buttons; the boxed chocolate brand Milk Tray; and the twist-wrapped chocolates Heroes.

As well as Cadbury's chocolate, the company also owns Maynards and Halls, and is associated with several types of confectionery including former Trebor and Bassett's brands or products such as Liquorice Allsorts, Jelly Babies, Flumps, Mints, Dolly Mix, Black Jack chews, Trident gum, and Softmints.

Notable product introductions include:

1865: Cocoa Essence

1875: Easter Eggs

1897: Milk Chocolate

1897: Fingers

1905: Dairy Milk

1908: Bournville

1915: Milk Tray

1920: Flake

1923: Creme Egg

1929: Crunchie

1938: Roses

1948: Fudge

1960: Dairy Milk Buttons

1968: Picnic

1970: Curly Wurly

1974: Snack

1983: Wispa (relaunched 2007)

1985: Boost

1987: Twirl

1992: Time Out

1995: Wispa Gold (relaunched 2009)

1996: Fuse

2001: Brunch Bar, Dream and Flake Snow

2010: Dairy Milk Silk and Dairy Milk Bliss

2011: BiscBits

Advertising controversy

In May 2011 the model Naomi Campbell described the new advertisement for the Bliss bar as 'insulting and hurtful'. Reacting to the advertisement, which had the tag line Move over Naomi there is a new diva in town, Campbell said, "I am shocked. It's upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me, but for all black women and black people. I do not find any humour in this."[60] A spokesperson for the company insisted that the campaign was "a light-hearted take on the social pretensions of Cadbury Dairy Milk Bliss". The campaign was, he later added, "no longer in circulation... we have no plans to repeat the campaign."

Reacting to Campbell's outburst, comedian Reginald D. Hunter, on the BBC television comedy quiz Have I Got News For You, suggested that it was complimentary for black people to be compared to chocolate, and that enjoyment of the Bliss bar might even be enhanced by a love of black people.[61]

[edit] Health and safety

2006 Salmonella scare

On 19 January 2006, Cadbury Schweppes detected a rare strain of the Salmonella bacteria, affecting seven of its products, said to have been caused by a leaking pipe. The leak occurred at its Marlbrook plant, in Herefordshire, which produces chocolate crumb mixture; the mixture is then transported to factories at Bournville and formerly Somerdale to be turned into milk chocolate.[62]

Cadbury Schweppes officially notified the Food Standards Agency, shortly after which it recalled more than a million chocolate bars.[62]

In December 2006, the company announced that the cost of dealing with the contamination would reach 30 million.[63][64]

In April 2007, Birmingham City Council announced that it would be prosecuting Cadbury Schweppes in relation to three alleged offences of breaching health and safety legislation. An investigation being carried out at that time by Herefordshire Council led to a further six charges being brought.[63] The company pleaded guilty to all nine charges,[65][66] and was fined 1 million pounds at Birmingham Crown Courtthe sentencing of both cases was brought together.[67] Analysts have said the fine is not material to the group, with mitigating factors limiting the fine being that the company quickly admitted its guilt and said it had been mistaken that the infection did not pose a threat to health.[67]

[edit] 2007 recalls

On 10 February 2007, Cadbury announced they would be recalling a range of products due to a labelling error. The products were produced in a factory handling nuts, potential allergens, but this was not made clear on the packaging. As a precaution, all items were recalled.[68]

On 14 September 2007, Cadbury Schweppes investigated a manufacturing error over allergy warning, recalling for the second time in two years thousands of chocolate bars. A printing mistake at Somerdale Factory resulted in the omission of tree nut allergy labels from 250 g Dairy Milk Double Chocolate bars.[69]

[edit] 2008

On 29 September 2008 Cadbury withdrew all of its 11 chocolate products made in its three Beijing factories, on suspicion of contamination with melamine. The recall affected the mainland China markets, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia.[70] Products recalled included Dark Chocolate, a number of products in the 'Dairy Milk' range and Chocolate clairs.[71]

[edit] 2009 Hydrogenation

Cadbury continues to use hydrogenated oils in many of its signature products. Although trans fats are present, the nutrition labels round the values down to zero.[72]

[edit] Headquarters

Cadbury's headquarters (Head Office UK) is the Cadbury House in the Uxbridge Business Park in Uxbridge, London Borough of Hillingdon, England.[73] Cadbury occupies 84,000 square feet (7,800 m2) of space in its head office, which is Building 3 of the business park.[74] Cadbury, who leases space in the building it occupies, had relocated from central London to its current head office.[75]

Cadbury's previous head office was in 25 Berkeley Square in Mayfair, City of Westminster. In

1992 the company leased the space for 55 per 1 square foot (0.093 m2).[74] In 2002 the company agreed to pay 68.75 per square foot. The Daily Telegraph reported in 2007 that the rent was expected to increase to a "three-figure sum." In 2007 Cadbury Schweppes had announced that it was moving to Uxbridge to cut costs. As of that year the head office had 200 employees.[76] After the Kraft Foods acquisition of Cadbury, Kraft announced that the Cadbury head office would remain the "Cadbury House."[77]

Cadbury Schweppes: Competitive Advantage and Business Level Choice.

Words: | Submitted: Thu Aug 14 2003

... leading the market in the UK, Poland and China in its field. The challenges faced in these markets are such that the Group must constantly innovate to remain ahead of the competition. Cadbury Schweppes follows global strategies that offer cost reductions, improved quality, and better ability to meet customers' needs and increased competitive

leverage. This can be seen in its agreements with bottling companies to produce Dr. Pepper and 7UP in the US at reduced costs and by its recent acquisitions of Snapple and Wuxi Leaf chewing gum. It has a total of 85 manufacturing and bottling facilities, 30 of which are engaged in the manufacture and bottling of beverage products, and 55 that are engaged in the manufacture of confectionery products. The Group trades in almost 200 countries throughout the world. Competitive Advantage. Cadbury Schweppes' competitive advantage comes from its SBU's being highly related and producing similar products, therefore building ...

SWOT ANALYSIS

In order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the brand as such I have carried out the SWOT analysis of the brands, as it exists today. The SWOT analysis would give indications as to how the marketing strategies should be planned. As talked about earlier, the chocolate market is on the growth stage of the life cycle. Hence it is important that the brand is marketed aggressively and its image is modified in such a way that it can differentiate itself from the clutter of other brands that exist in the market today. In order to carry out the SWOT analysis various people were consulted and inputs were obtained from the actual users.

A very peculiar characteristic of the chocolate consumers as we found is that there is an overwhelming awareness among the users about different brands that exist in the market. There is however very little brand loyalty in users. People always are ready to try out new brands and keep on switching from one brand to another. This behavior poses lot of challenge, as the job of designing of

marketing strategies becomes two fold. Firstly non-users are to be converted to users and more importantly the existing customers should are not be lost.

The SWOT analysis has been done of three major companies i.e. Cadburys, Amul, and Nestle. They are the major players that cover approximately 95% of Indian chocolate market. The analysis will help to know what measure the chocolate companies in Indian market should take.

SWOT analysis of Cadburys

Strength

1. Cadbury is a company, which is reputed internationally as the topmost chocolate provider in the world.

2. The brand is well known to people & they can easily identify it from others.

3. Cadbury the world leaders in chocolate, is a well-known force in marketing and distribution.

4. Users have a positive perception about the qualities of the brand.

5. Cadbury main strength is Dairy milk. Dairy milk is the most consumed chocolate in India.

6. By using popular models like Cyrus Brocha, Preety Zinta and others Cadburys has managed to portray a young and sporty image, which has resulted in converting buyers of other brands to become its staunch loyalists.

7. Cadbury has well adjusted itself to Indian custom.

8. It has properly repositioned itself in India whenever required i.e. from children to adults, togetherness bar to energizing bar for young ones etc.

Weaknesses

1. There is lack of penetration in the rural market where people tend to dismiss it as a high end product. It is mainly found in urban and semi-urban areas.

2. It has been relatively high priced brand, which is turning the price conscious customer away.

3. People avoid having their chocolate thinking about the egg ingredients.

Opportunities

1. The chocolate market has seen one of the greatest increases in the recent times (almost @ 30%)

2. There is a lot of potential for growth and a huge population who do not eat chocolates even today that can be converted as new users.

Threat 1. There exists no brand loyalty in the chocolate market and consumers frequently shift their brands.

2. New brands are coming and existing brands are introducing new variants to add up to an already overcrowded market.