CADBURY HAS SAID it may shrink the size of its products in the UK in the wake of Brexit.
Glenn Caton, who is in charge of Cadbury in the UK, told the Guardian that the company would have to adapt to the terms of Brexit – but committed to future manufacturing there.
The company may eventually have to pass on the higher cost of doing business to customers by selling smaller products for the same price.
It is still going to be the home of chocolate manufacturing, it is still going to be the home of global research and development.
He said there were three priorities for the company as Brexit approached – a strong economy; no introduction of new, complex regulation; and security for staff from the 50-odd different nationalities who work at its Bournville plant.
If the Brexit deal doesn’t deliver, the company will have to adapt, he said, telling the paper:
All we can do is to move to the times that we face. I am confident though because a £200m investment in the last five years is not something we are going to walk away from. I can’t guarantee anything forever but am I confident that we are still going to have world-class manufacturing and research sites in the UK for the long term? I do feel confident of that.
Founded 1824 in Birmingham, Cadbury was taken over by Mondelez International, a US company, in 2010.
Cadbury Ireland employs staff at its Coolock plant in north Dublin and at its chocolate crumb factory in Rathmore, Kerry. Mondelez cut 200 jobs in Ireland in 2015.
Cadbury supports additional jobs in Ireland, according to the company website, through the purchase of local milk, sugar beet, packaging and a range of other materials.
More than €250 million worth of Cadbury chocolate produced in Ireland is exported every year.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, Mondelez said:
“Product evolution is not unique to chocolate, our business nor our brands. It is a decades-long, industry wide trend that happens for many reasons. Recently, it has been well reported that food manufacturers have been experiencing higher input costs for some time, making food more expensive and we are no exception to this.
We carry these costs within our business for as long as possible to keep our brands available and affordable, only making changes as a last resort, whilst (always) ensuring we don’t compromise on taste and quality.
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