Should Cadburys remain British, does it matter?

[FoxyRed]

As long as it still tastes the same, I dont care

 

[invisibleplanet]

I care if people are going to lose their jobs, which going off past Kraft behaviour, seems inevitable

 

[skyscraper101]

I'd rather Kraftwerk took over Cadbury.

 

[Idris2002]

It's just been on the radio that Kraft have got the green light to take over Cadbury.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Listening to some people moan and whinge about this (not on here) you'd think they hadn't heard what capitalism is or how it works. Dimwitted shits who have been patronising us for ever about the sacred markets are slowly waking up to the fact that much of it is utter bollocks and destructive. But they daren't openly admit it or do anything about it. Some Labour twonk was on R4 at lunchtime saying perhaps things had gone too far. Yeah -thanks for doing fuck all to protect jobs in the last 12 years and then suddenly saying some vague stuff just before being kicked out. Mind you, these are the war criminals who told us they saved the economy after destroying it.

 

[butchersapron]

eh?

 

[teqniq]

Craig Murray has an interesting but depressing angle on this:-

Cadbury's Demise a Disaster for Ghana

Cadbury’s were using Fair Trade Cocoa for generations before the phrase was invented.

Cocoa in Ghana is a smallholding crop, with individual farmers having a hectare or two of mixed crops, including cocoa. It is not a plantation crop as it is in Brazil or Ivory Coast. That is why Ghanaian cocoa is of higher quality, and commands a premium on commodity markets. Cadbury’s chocolate in the UK uses 95% Ghanaian cocoa.

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

eh?

Oh, doesnt matter. Just the drooling about how sad it all is from capitalism's apologists.

 

[editor]

Craig Murray has an interesting but depressing angle on this:-


http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

That's a great article:

Displacement to form vast cocoa estates has been part of the cause of conflict in Ivory Coast. The estates are attended with other evils – erosion and devastation of soil nutrients caused by monoculture, widespread use of child labour, and the conversion of independent small farmers to landless day labourers. These are but some of the ill effects.

The estates also produce low quality cocoa. It seems a truth in agriculture that over-intensive monoculture produces tasteless food. Most British people realize that Cadbury’s chocolate tastes better, but don’t know why. The answer is in the cocoa.

What Cadbury’s use in the UK is from independent Ghanaian smallholders, and is the equivalent of wines from an ancient small chateau or boutique Californian estate. They pay extra for it, and their willingness to pay extra has been a key part of keeping the Ghanaian small farmer going.

Kraft on the other hand use the mass produced estate cocoa; the equivalent of soulless and tasteless wine from multiple fields and huge stainless steel tanks. They source mostly in Brazil – the World’s most tasteless cocoa – and Ivory Coast. The bad taste in the mouth from the cocoa is both real and metaphorical. The estates in both countries make massive use of child labour.

It is a fact that Cadbury’s practices in dealing fairly with small African farmers dated back directly to the ethical precepts of their Quaker founders. I had occasion to prepare a report for the British government on the Ghanaian cocoa industry, in response to concerns about the use of child labour on Ivory Coast estates. I visited numerous Ghanaian farmers and Cadbury’s headquarters in the process, and have met Cadbury’s buyers in the field in West Africa over twenty years.

I have no doubt that in order to rack up the return on their vast investment, Kraft will switch to the cheap and nasty cocoa they normally use. This could be the worst thing to hit the Ghanaian rural economy since blackpod disease..

...It is a fact that Cadbury’s practices in dealing fairly with small African farmers dated back directly to the ethical precepts of their Quaker founders.

Kraft aren't going to give a shit, are they?

 

[weltweit]

Well to a certain extent, this is the risk you take on when you list your company on the stock market. Anyone can buy or sell your shares as they please and you can be taken over.

Cadbury could have remained a private company, but they did not.

 

[Sesquipedalian]

Listening to some people moan and whinge about this (not on here) you'd think they hadn't heard what capitalism is or how it works. Dimwitted shits who have been patronising us for ever about the sacred markets are slowly waking up to the fact that much of it is utter bollocks and destructive. But they daren't openly admit it or do anything about it. Some Labour twonk was on R4 at lunchtime saying perhaps things had gone too far. Yeah -thanks for doing fuck all to protect jobs in the last 12 years and then suddenly saying some vague stuff just before being kicked out. Mind you, these are the war criminals who told us they saved the economy after destroying it.

This ^^^^

This takeover is being financed by debt which will be recouped by "rationalisation" of the business.
That means factories in this country close and people lose their jobs.
It's the institutional shareholders that drove this and they are the ones taking the profit at £8.50 per share and no doubt a bonus or two.

Neither companies put much chocolate in their "chocolate" so it is unlikey to affect the taste of the products but this takeover does leave a bad taste in the mouth.

It's the usual suspects.

 

[teqniq]

...Kraft aren't going to give a shit, are they?

That'll be about the size of it.

 

[treelover]

£2m a day cost of Cadbury deal – plus £12m for the boss

Bonanza for banks and lawyers involved in deal as company warns of job cuts


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/19/cadbury-kraft-takeover-todd-stitzer

not just the share holders who are making money,


btw, reading the CM article the takeover will be a disaster for the Ghanain cocoa producers , how on earth can they find similar markets if Kraft 'rationalises' as it will.


anyway , imo, its time for some protectionism, France and others do it, so should we.

 

[LLETSA]

Well to a certain extent, this is the risk you take on when you list your company on the stock market. Anyone can buy or sell your shares as they please and you can be taken over.

Cadbury could have remained a private company, but they did not.

Manchester United could have remained a debt-free company and they didn't... What a shame.

 

[weltweit]

Manchester United could have remained a debt-free company and they didn't... What a shame.

Indeed, Man U and Cadbury are perfect examples of the risks of going public. I used to work for another, a company that was swallowed up by another group. In our case the group doing the buying was if anything smaller than us, the group they were swallowing.

Such is the way with a stock market listing.

iirc Amstrad went public, didn't completely like it and later bought its shares back and went private again.

 

[Herbsman.]

as cadburys are our biggest customer, i reckon we're fucked...

i really feel sorry for the staff, especially those who have been there for ages.

 

[weltweit]

as cadburys are our biggest customer, i reckon we're fucked...

i really feel sorry for the staff, especially those who have been there for ages.

Years ago I used to work for a company whose primary customer was Rover Group. I don't know what happenned to them but I would guess downsizing.

If you get busy perhaps you can find some new customers elsewhare.

 

[gosub]

In answer to the OP question, the alternative is protectionism, last depression (more than 2 quarters of negative growth) where that became fashionable didn't end well (1930's).

Serious question if Kraft do trash the brands values and sack a lot of people as well, what is to stop people setting up along the lines of old ideas using thier redundency?

Odd country UK, of all the things to worry about losing control of: steel, energy, fuck sake even water,no, must maintian control of chocolate

 

[planetgeli]

Odd country UK, of all the things to worry about losing control of: steel, energy, fuck sake even water,no, must maintian control of chocolate

This.

Couldn't believe the Radio5 phone-in (ok, maybe I could) yesterday. If the Left really want a revolution then obviously we have to mobilise behind the chocolate lovers.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I expect someone has already said, but who gives a fudge?

 

[audiotech]

 

[weltweit]

Every country gets nervous when foriegn companies start buying up their local once proud industries. Germany was concerned when Vodaphone bought Mannessman. When James Goldsmith was buying up swathes of American industry the Americans called him in front of a senate committe.

All nations basically feel the same.

 

[Simon B]

Bad news if there's job losses.
Have to say though, Cadbury make shite chocolate already.
There is less actual chocolate in a bar of Bournville plain chocolate than in Tesco Value plain chocolate and it is far too sweet.

 

[weltweit]

Clegg attacks Brown over RBS funding for Cadbury bid
Gordon Brown has been criticised after it was revealed the taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is funding the takeover of Cadbury by a US company.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8470776.stm

 

[david dissadent]

Clegg attacks Brown over RBS funding for Cadbury bid
Gordon Brown has been criticised after it was revealed the taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is funding the takeover of Cadbury by a US company.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8470776.stm

Jesus did I miss a meeting or something? Are we anti globalisation for our favourite sweeties but pro globalisation of our mining and oil and gas industries?

Christ help us if a Chinese conglomerate tries to buy Action Man.

 

[gosub]

As previously posted, I missed the meeting too.

Keven Maguire got me most yesterday, from his column:
"...Cadbury joins the once British-owned car, electricity, water, steel, defence and banking industries owned by foreign raiders.

We’ll pay dearly in the long run for selling off the country’s finest firms.

The Dairylea fat cats will sack thousands of workers to recover the £12bn price tag.

You don’t need to be a flag-waving nationalist to recognise it’s lunacy to flog off our industrial heritage"....

speaking from the flag waving corner; to have a nation you need the a for mentioned industries to safe guard the existence of a nation. To flag wave over chocolate -that's lunacy. Almost a blessing UK has been neutered

 

[Wolveryeti]

Jesus did I miss a meeting or something? Are we anti globalisation for our favourite sweeties but pro globalisation of our mining and oil and gas industries?

Christ help us if a Chinese conglomerate tries to buy Action Man.

I think the issue here is a majority-publicly-owned entity enabling an action that is going to lead to job losses. If it was a private bank there wouldn't be this political dimension.

The lack of political will to intervene again shows how the government's number 1 priority is restoring the banks it owns to profitability and selling them. I think that's a damn shame - a nationalised banking monopoly would repay the investment many times over, as well as injecting some much needed stability into the financial system.

 

[Lo Siento.]

As previously posted, I missed the meeting too.

Keven Maguire got me most yesterday, from his column:
"...Cadbury joins the once British-owned car, electricity, water, steel, defence and banking industries owned by foreign raiders.

what the fuck is a foreign raider anyway - almost everything is owned by international investment banks these days isn't it?

 

[Buzz sw9]

 

[audiotech]

Give me Belgian chocolate any day over the Cadbury's crap.

'Britain's most famous chocolate maker, Cadbury, has decided to warn chocolate lovers that its product contains - milk.'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...aters-about-its-milk-and-nut-ingredients.html

According to WikiAnswers:

cadbury is made in many countries including, china, poland,france, australia,new zealand,Ireland , america( Cadbury in america is made by the hershey company but under the Cadbury name), turkey, india,turkey,greece, england and mexico. it is made in pretty much in any country that sells it.