If we could please just take a moment to remove our hats, bow our heads, and mourn the loss of a great British Icon (and owner of Green and Blacks) as it is sold off to the plastic cheese company: Kraft.

I for one am expecting that much like Tobler and Terrys, previously taken over by Kraft; Cadburys bars shall become sweet, sugary awful parodies of their former selves. I am also worried that this effect may taint G&B.

In dishonour of this greedy shareholder/board member traitorship I have recreated an old advert slogan:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/lasairfion/KraftCadburyTakeover.jpg[/IMG]

We can also expect in the near future, I am sure, massive job losses affecting the Bournville area of Birmingham much like the loss of Houses of Parliament (HP) sauce. How any self respecting government could have let two such icons go, I have no idea.

A sad day indeed.

This is the logic of capitalism. Unless there is another model that society can take on, one can not blame the rational outcome of an accepted system dictated by stock expectation. Personally i think private companies provide a better way of balancing interests and long and short term view.

Hi Chocolatero,
I’ve no problem with private companies or capitalism. What I object to is the global aspect of big business today which justifies the bankrupting or buying out of smaller business competitors, the trashing of the environment and the playing off of one source of labour against another, often on the other side of the world in nasty totalitarian regimes like China, with the bleat that “we’re giving people what they want” or “we’re reducing prices for our customers” or some other self-serving business platitude. We sell Jaguar to an Indian company for pennies and the government then subsidize Tata’s losses when they start threatening to move factories to Russia or China. This is globalism or unrestricted free trade and it’s destroying us. Slightly off topic, I know, and sorry for the rant!

Cadbury might be moving production outside the UK, but there are still companies producing British chocolate i.e. processing in the UK – at least Willie Hacourt Cooze, Artisan du chocolat (us) and Sir Hans Sloane. May be this is the start of a new generation to bean to bar/liquor to bar/chocolates makers in the UK?

Hi Duffy
Heard about you from Kate. Would be good to meet sometimes.

I thought I’d best post on here seeing as I hadn’t been on for a while and this subject is something which I am relatively qualified to do so. The takeover has obviously been on everyone’s mind for quite some time, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Kraft have made a sound business decision in buying Cadbury, and the indications are that it is an excellent move for Cadbury also. Comparisons have been made between Cadbury and the takeover of Terry’s and Tobler, and with no disrespect to either of those two companies, they were not the worldwide icon that Cadbury is (and will be for many years to come) and they didn’t have a first class product that is as world-recognised as Cadbury Dairy Milk.
As for the suggestion that this could be an opportunity for (my favourite) Mr Harcourt-Cooze and other small chocolate producers, it isn’t going to happen. There is far too much competition now as so many people got caught up on the high percentage band wagon. It’s the same thing that happened in the world of wine: I can name plenty of different vintners, but none that stand head and shoulders above the rest as the market is just too saturated, and will remain so until someone comes up with something truly groundbreaking. And let’s face it, grapes are grapes!
To summarise, it’s going to be an interesting year, but a year full of opportunity, and I, as ever, am looking forward to the challenge. You never know, Kraft may view my department as a viable business opportunity in a market saturated with high percentage cocoa, which has left a huge gap for Dairy Milk and Bournville to show its versatility. Bring it on!!!

Dairy Milk is good.