Cadbury flakes in face of Kraft bid - cuts expected

Boycott!

Yet another brand I will be boycotting!

Oi! Kraft! - don't mess with my Dairy Milk!

Let's hope Kraft don't start fucking around with Cadbury's recipes, like Nestle did to Rowntree Mackintosh.

KitKats taste like shit now - especially the ones sold here on the continent. Thanks Nestle, you chocotwunts.

ByeBye brummie choccies

Expect terms such as "consolodation", "repositioning" and other business newspeak to be rolled out followed by factory closures and redundancies.

Selling off the UK piece by piece

Its sad to see such an old name and yet another piece of the UK sold off. :(

Well....

that's 6000 more on the dole then...

Lord Mandelson held a meeting

well that is the kiss of death to any business.

Yet another fine, upstanding British Business waves good bye to the country of its birth. Soon all we will produce in the UK is .... ... well nothing really.

Vote for change

hersheys

not really chocolate is it?

The Americans know NOTHING about chocolate

Have you tasted their travesty of Hershey's which yanks go mad over? Horrid stuff. As are their beloved Oreos.

So...

The ethical and now largely fair trade Cadbury is swallowed up by one of the most unethical, unfair trade corporations on the planet =o(

Together, Kraft and Nestle are the worlds biggest contributors towards extreme poverty in coffee producing areas and even modern day slavery (on cocoa plantations) across vast swaths of Africa and South America.

Maybe Cadbury can influence Kraft in the same way that Green and Blacks influenced it, here's to hoping...

What to expect

More of the usual, Board members cash in their share options,make disgustingly large amounts of cash, production is moved to other countries, jobs go in manufacturing, distribution, sales, etc. But only after 9 months to a year, let the dust settle. American management comes in , pisses off the best workers, who leave, company sites become even less profitable, Kraft closes sites. Hedge funds and Pensions people make disgustingly large bonus, pension funds under perform as usual........More of the usual. GREED WINS.

btw Cadbury's M&A advisors are, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, both US based companies.

A sad day for British workers.

Terrible News

I hope this gets blocked further down the line. I don't work for Cadburys but I live next to the HQ in Bournville, Birmingham. Local jobs have already suffered worse than average in the recession. Now our most profitable and successful local business is going to be forced to make job cuts just to make profits for the the very people whose speculation caused the recession in the first place.

balls

"short term profit making"

That probably means my dairy milk will now be stuffed full of high fructose corn syrup, f**k this deal, i wont be eating any cadbury products any more, corn syrup = obese/type 2 diabetes.

Sad day

Cadbury's chocolate - better get it now whilst you can.

No matter what the management at Kraft say, they are going to make cuts to the work force and they will definitely look to relocate some parts of the business (if not the whole thing) overseas.

It's also highly likely that they will look to change the recipe of the products (they have done with almost every other brand that they own.

Still, there's always Thorntons - bet their sales increase on the next few years.

IT angle? There are going to be a lot more IT techies not getting their leg over as the British womenfolk will hate the American style "candy"

Let's

hope they can learn something from Cadbury and not decide that the rest of the world needs the chance to experience American "chocolate" with it's distinct after taste that reminds me of the last time I needed to talk on the big white telephone.

could be worse

At least Hershey didn't get them. Kraft stuff is generally edible.

Sodding Cigarette Companies

Great the qualit is going t be that of Kraft 'Cheeses' now such as singles, dairylea etc. FFS what has the world come to, I am not happy at all.

CurlyWurlys are on me!

For a short while longer anyway...after which they will have the caramel centre replaced by cheesewhizz.

Eat up kiddies.

a shame...

can i recommend buying lindt - their dark choccy is mighty fine, go for the 70%.

cadburys bournville 'dark' choccy is rubbish and i suspect all their range will now start to taste like the US choccy - bloody awful!

since HP sauce went abroad, i really have no faith in british food brands.

Shame, but

British chocolate (from the big boys, anyway) was always crap - for a long time the EC weren't going to let it be called chocolate, since it contains so much non-cocoa vegetable oil (of course the US 'version' of chocolate is even worse ...) As Richard says, Lindt is an example of a mass-produced brand that maintains decent product standards.

Wasn't the Cadbury-Schweppes IT operation spun out in the 80s and became one of the first outsourcing operations (can't remember now what name they came up with)?

no one wants this in the UK but why cannot we stop it

Sad day if you know what happended to Rowntrees and Terry's. Seems to be a sovereignty point here the governemnt has given up the ability to act in national interest vis-a-vis take overs so we the public cannot influcnce our representatives to get the decision we want for a business that is in the UK. I think we need a "final solution" for highly leveraged business's and bankers that provide no social worth.

At least they weren't bought by Hershey's

I distinguish peasants from people with the basics of palate discipline based on this. If they like Hershey's they know #$%@#$%@# about good taste. I would describe the taste of that confection as petroleum jelly covered in molten plastic.

Adding my voice to the chorus of "Don't mess with the f*cking recipe!". I used to like Nestle's Crunch chocolate. It used to be creamier with a milder sweetness. After Nestle started messing around with the recipe, you now get a grayish abomination that tastes like a frozen bar of water sweetened with saccharine.

I'm personally partial to Benn's Gold Bar and Truffettes de France.

As soon as...

Cadbury's went to a publicly traded company, this was always a possibility - according to some interviews on R4 the last few mornings, many of the major Cadbury shareholders are not from the UK anyway. Additionally, the Cadbury's board HAVE to accept a deal at a certain level otherwise the shareholders can remove the board and have it replaced, as they will be deemed to be not acting in the best interest of the shareholders (owners) who just want a healthy return on their investment.

Maybe Mandleson could provide some government backing for a completely new 'Cadbury's Original' or 'Cadbury's 1886' business - all UK based employees leave and join the new entity and HOPE the UK population feel all nostalgic about them and buy only Cadbury's ???? brands.

Short in the lunch box

That'll leave me with another gap in my satchel where the goodies used to be.

After this deal, I won't be buying anymore Cadbury's products, so I can only suggest that those affected by the staff cuts should set up a Social Enterprise making Cream Eggs just for Mandy. Who knows, if they are any good, full of true grit or summat, they could be just what Gordon needs to save the English economy.

Now, I have a load of debt and this deal has got me wondering if I can't maybe buy a US bank on the strength of it ? How about all us debt laden folks in the UK buy out all the US banks ?

We could make loads a Wonka maybe, and get the UK goovermin to bail us out when it all goes tits up, as it will, 'cos that's how we like 'em.

ALF