Cadbury Limited.

Authors Avatar

Task

1

Cadbury Limited.

Cadbury Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Schweppes plc. It produces the finest quality confectionery; chocolate, sweets, cakes, drinks, yoghurts, ice creams and promotional material for all its products. Cadbury Limited was first located in the middle of England, Birmingham. Then merged with Schweppes and formed new sites.

  • Bournville, Birmingham
  • Somerdale (near Bristol)
  • Chirk, (North Wales)
  • Marlbrook (Herefordshire)
  • Minworth (Birmingham)
  • London
  • Belfast
  • Paisley

It currently employs 4,000 employees, each working in many different departments within the company.

Its mission statement is  Cadbury Schweppes governing objectives is to maximise returns to shareholders. In support of this, Cadbury Ltd. Aims to be Clearly The Best and be seen to be Clearly The Best by consumers, competitors and share owners. 80% of employees own shares through various share ownership/share save schemes”.

Cadbury’s confectionery is available in a wide variety of retail outlets, form traditional CTN (confectionery, tobacconist and newsagent) and grocery trade to leisure centres, garages, DIY outlets and off licences, with well over 150,000 places able to cater for the British passion for chocolate.

History of Cadbury’s Limited

In 1824 a young Quaker, John Cadbury, opened a shop at 93 Bull shop in a fashionable part of Birmingham. This one-man business, trading mainly tea and coffee, was to be the foundation of Cadbury limited- ‘ THE FIRST NAME IN CHOCOLATE’, today one of the world’s largest producers of chocolate. For over 100 years Cadbury was essentially a family business and although non-family directors were appointed for the first time in1943, the company retained many features of a family business until 1962 to form Cadbury Schweppes plc. Cadbury Limited is the confectionary division of this international company.

In 1847 the enterprise had prospered to a large factory in Bridge Street, Birmingham. John Cadbury took his brother Benjamin into partnership and the family business became Cadbury Brothers Birmingham.  In 1850, John Cadbury’s sons had joined the business as well, George and Richard. In 1889 John Cadbury sadly died leaving the business to his sons. The business prospered after many daunting years when the two sons took on the business.  

The business moved to Bournville after out growing the Bridge Street factory, the work force had risen to 200 after 32years at Bridge Street. From then the business grew and grew. Following the two brothers death in 1899, the business became a private limited, by 1899 the business ad almost trebled in size, employing over 2,600 employees. Due to the formation of the private limited company, Bournville entered an era of scientific management, introducing new ideas – analytical laboratories, advertising and cost offices, a sales department, works committee, medical department, pension funds, education and training for employees.

After WW1, there was a rapid change in industrial technology, the Bournville factory was rebuilt and equipped for mass production and the luxury of chocolate became well within the financial reach of the majority of the population. Several factors led to reduction of process for chocolate- raw materials cost, processing efficiency and lower transport costs.

In 1919 Cadburys Brothers merged with J S Fry & sons of Bristol whose product range complemented that of Cadbury. Due to this, Cadburys expanded more, a factory in Bournville and now in Somerdale near Bristol.

Cadburys today

Always in the forefront of production developments, Cadbury has introduced the most advanced processing technology and management information and control techniques to it chocolate business. Three chocolate factories operate in the UK- the moulded factory producing chocolate bars, the assortment factory producing chocolate plus Easter eggs and crème eggs, both situated in the original Bournville site. The Somerdale factory near Bristol produces count line bars such as double decker, crunchie, and fry’s turkish delight, while Flake, Time out, and Twirl are made on specialised plant at the Cadbury plant at the Cadbury Eire Factory. All factories are open 24 hours a day producing Cadbury products to the highest standards of quality control. In the assortments factory, there has been a major revolution of the packaging system, where chocolates were previously individually packed in boxes by hand, machines now handle them automatically.

Cadbury Limited – The Business.

A short definition about the different types of businesses.

  • Sole Trader. Owned by one person who also controls it, i.e. manages it, may employ others. Access to finance is fairly limited; they use own personal savings or a bank loan. Has unlimited liability, as owner is personally liable. As a sole trader, the business is unincorporated, so no legal requirements in setting up a business. The owner retains profits; they don’t have to share them, although they are also fully responsible for losses.
  • Partnership. More than one to 20 owners, joint ownership, so they share responsibility and control. Due to the amount of partners, each can make a contribution to finance; this gives them a bigger base for raising finance. The company is unlimited liability, this means all partners are liable for debts. No legal requirements so unincorporated. Profits are shared by equally through all partners; all partners are liable to losses.
  • Private Limited Liability.  Shareholders are owners and have degree of control; the business can’t be lost to outsiders. More finance can be raised as no limit on number of shareholders. The company has limited liability so shareholders are prepared to risk investing more. Private limited liability companies have many legal requirements; memoranda of association, article of association. Profits are shared out amongst shareholders, according to their share holdings.
  • Public Limited Liability. Shareholders are owners; they appoint directors to control- managers. However often get a divorce of ownership and control so shareholders and management differ on matters. Huge amount of money can be raised through the issue of the stock market. It can also retain some of the profits. The company has limited liability, only on the extent of their investment, as limited liability the company has its own separate legal identity. Legal requirements are the same as private limited liability; memoranda of association, article of association.

So what type of business would Cadburys Limited come under?

Looking back at the history of the business, we can identify that the company has been through many different types and characteristics of businesses. When Cadburys was first established, it would come under the characteristics of a sole trader, as one man (John Cadbury) opened a small shop in 1824 on the streets in Birmingham. As a family business also called ‘The one man business’ then changed hand to partnership, when he took on his brother- Benjamin Cadbury and the family business name changed to ‘Cadbury Brothers Birmingham’. Later on down the line in 1850, the business then changed hands from the original owner- John, down to his two sons, Richard and George. This did not change the type of business, but we must remember that the business has already had many people in control of this ‘family’ business.  In 1899 the two brothers died unexpectedly, so the business then quickly changed to private limited.  From that day onwards Cadburys Limited has been a public limited business after changing in 1962, letting employees own shares within the business. Currently Cadburys employees own 80% of shares.

Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

Cadburys ltd. has many famous brands and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk milk chocolate, today is the most popular moulded chocolate in the U.K, but lately sales have been decreasing. Milk chocolate for eating was first made by Cadbury in 1897 by adding milk powder paste to the dark chocolate recipe of cocoa mass, cocoa butter and sugar. This was not the usual taste we get now; this was a dry coarse chocolate, not milky or sweet. There was a great deal of competition from foreign countries, French and Swiss chocolates being the main competitors. A considerable amount of time and money were spent on research and new plant designed to produces the new chocolate in much larger quantities. A new recipe was formulated incorporating fresh milk and new production processes were developed to produce milk chocolate. By 1905, they had finally cracked the recipe for milk chocolate. A huge launch for the new product went out. By 1913 this was the company’s best selling line; by the mid-twenties, Cadbury’s dairy milk gained its status as the brand leader, a position it has enjoyed ever since. Today more than 250million bars of dairy milk are made every year and sales reach over £100million in value.

Join now!

During 1928 and 1933, Cadbury Dairy Milk milk chocolate, grew, the company had decided to make the chocolate even better by adding new ingredients; nuts and fruit. Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut, and Cadbury’s Whole Nut chocolate were launched to increase popularity and sales.

Cadbury Dairy Milk is a confectionery product, coming under the necessity category, along side; cigarettes, alcohol and fuel.

                    Task

2

Cadbury.

Cadbury develop its products around many segmentation in the market e.g. age, gender, family characteristics and social class. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay