As a lifelong fan of Cadbury Chocolate, I cannot tell you how sad I am to see the greedy shareholders accepting the takeover by Kraft. Cadbury and all it's traditions, it's workplace ethics, it's belief and well treatment in and of it's workers has all gone at the stroke of a pen. Kraft say they cannot guarantee that they will continue to maunfacture Cadbury's Chocolate in Britain, so it's goodbye to all those loyal and trusted workers in Chirk North Wales, Bournville Birmingham, Hereford and all the other outlets across the country. No more Cadbury World in Birmingham where you entered a chocolate paradise as you were taken around the factory where the beloved bars were made, a veritable Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory in real life - and that's all going. It is a very sad day inded for Britain. What is left in this country now? Britain plc has now lost it's soul, everything is foreign owned so is it any wonder we don't have a sense of national pride anymore.
What I cannot understand is how these fat cats at the top of the tree, despite all the outpouring of support from the public and the workers to keep Cadbury British, have just sold us all down the chocolate river in return for the mighty dollar! What they don't realise is this - if you take the manufacturing of Cadbury Chocolate products out of Britain and out of British workers hands and outsource it overseas (I think Poland has been spoken about) you destabilise the whole thing, you change the flavour at your peril. Change the ingredients that people all over the world, not just in Britain love and have grown up with and you lose sales; it is that simple so why mess with it at all by selling it out?
I for one, am not buying any more Cadbury chocolate once it is rebranded as Kraft as they will be substituting the 'glass and a half of full cream milk' in every bar for inferior substitutes; remember they have a huge debt to clear after this takeover. So, the chocolate content will go and instead of full cream dairy milk chocolate which is so good to eat, and which is like no other let me tell you, they will use cheaper products and the taste will be like every other rubbish chocolate bar out there. I feel very sorry for my American cousins, their chocolate, or candy as they sometimes call it is not really chocolate - anyone had a Hershey Bar? dreadful isn't it, I can imagine that's what eating cardboard would be like but Americans have grown up with that for chocolate and think that's what chocolate is all about. I know in some parts of America, like Florida, there are ex-pat shops which import Cadbury chocolate for the British people living out there, Americans are realising how good the product is as they are eating it too, well make the most of it I say, cos it's all a changing. The likes of Hersheys IMO are bland and tasteless, it looks like chocolate but that's all and how long will it be before your favourite Cadbury brands are exactly the same? Cadbury's Cheese Egg anyone (that should be Cadbury's Creme Egg for thos who know what I'm talking about) but that's what you can expect. No more Cadbury loveliness, just Cadbury blandness, no taste rubbish in the years to come, watch and see.
Anyone remember Terry's of York, a really nice chocolate maunfacturer making good chocolate in the City of York - gone, sold off, and the ingredients changed out of all recognition. Result? falling sales and just another sad story of a once greeat British product lost in the maelstrom of manufacturing in the big boys brigade, and Cadbury will go exactly the same way.
Anyone remember Terry's of York, a really nice chocolate maunfacturer making good chocolate in the City of York - gone, sold off, and the ingredients changed out of all recognition. Result? falling sales and just another sad story of a once greeat British product lost in the maelstrom of manufacturing in the big boys brigade, and Cadbury will go exactly the same way.
Let's be clear here, I have no problem with brands being taken over as long as the product remains the same and the workers are still employed as they have been done for centuries. What I do have problems with is brands being taken over, the products made with cheaper and therefore inferior products and the workforce told to sod off in so many words - in short Cadbury Management and Shareholders, this stinks. You think you have made a great investment no doubt and you are patting yourselves on the back while counting the green BUT be warned that quick profitability and net gains DO NOT guarantee sustained growth epsecially when you sold us down the river, especially when you allow foreign companies to mess with and alter the very fabric of the products out of all recognition.
Mess with the formula of Cadbury Chocolate at your peril and watch the profits fall. Where will your wisdom be then? To all the Cadbury Family I say sorry we were not able to change the minds of the shareholders and people at the top of Cadbury's. What a crying shame and no mistake! A very, very sad day indeed for Britain and British workers.
© silversapphire 2010
All rights reserved. No part of the publications, or of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means without the express prior written permission of the Author
