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Cadbury's Bournville Factory

Well it is not a British firm any more and has adulterated some of its products with vile Oreo, and tried to introduce obnoxious things such as jelly lumps ruining chocolate. They also don't now produce of the chocolate themselves, any more other than that labelled Dairy milk, though this does not really matter for many countlines, as it would be difficult to detect in many lines with other components. the quality of the Dairy milkk has, however also deteriorated, and the thinness of many of the bars that now exists because of "slimming down" makes the rating quality of the products less pleasant
 
It's a shame that the Cadbury family members sold their interest in the business. Were they conned into believing that the business would carry on as it was? Or were they just taking the money and running?

If you want to keep a business running as it was and doing what it was, you have to keep taking an interest in it; keep working with it. There are many businesses which are still functioning centuries down the line because the descendents of the original owners believed in their product and carried on doing what their ancestors had done. Many farms work on this basis and provide us with a good model of continuing business success.

Without business success, as a nation we are screwed!
 
TerryD147 said:
It's a shame that the Cadbury family members sold their interest in the business. Were they conned into believing that the business would carry on as it was? Or were they just taking the money and running?

If you want to keep a business running as it was and doing what it was, you have to keep taking an interest in it; keep working with it. There are many businesses which are still functioning centuries down the line because the descendents of the original owners believed in their product and carried on doing what their ancestors had done. Many farms work on this basis and provide us with a good model of continuing business success.

Without business success, as a nation we are screwed!
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I think that the Cadbury family started into too many non core businesses. I was recruited by them in the US when they were called Cadbury Schweppes. They had acquired Peter Paul, Almond Joy, Mott’s and a couple of other companies. It was a senior position reporting to the President. It was clear during the vetting process that they did not understand the scope of their competition, Mars, largest candy maker in the world still family managed and Hershey still with family roots and control. Regardless if one personally likes the product, we are now 35 years on and those companies are alive and well. Cadbury, the brand is great and valuable; as a highly regarded management consultant says, “it’s time to look in the mirror and time to look out the window”, the Cadbury family should go look in the mirror.
For me I declined the offer and specialized in turning struggling companies around and started my own company which I sold after 11 years and did a major turn around supplying body parts for BMW, MB, Honda & Toyota.
 
The problem was that when itcwas sold the family only had a limited financial interest in it. It had become ( for financial reasons I believe) a limited public company around 1950 though then the filyvsyill had control. After the merger with Schweppes they still had influence but had to please shareholders. They went through one battle successfully turning away the predator, but by the time kraft skid in the controlling executive was an American who ,S so often happens, was only interested in his own well being. He went " on holiday" to the US, and, ", purely by coincidence" a bid took place a few days later, though many/most of the board were opposed.
Richard you were right in saying that were not knowledgeable about businesses in the US, both on the chocolate and especially drinks side. I believe that the reason for the attempted expansion was due to those coming from the Schweppes side in the merger. The Schweppes side qere a financial manipulating type, outstanding for quick profits and financial finangling. They brought modern business practices to the firm, and cared little about people or long term stability and look what happened
 
Your spot on their Richard. I too recall Cadburys becoming Cadbury Schweppes and started acquiring other companies along the way. I was then thinking to myself who actually minding the shop. They pit themselves alongside some very experienced US businesses operating the Jack Welch businesses model of driving up shareholder prices and driving production down to cost not quality.
 
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