Thrillers and Suspense
Cadbury has announced plans to open a chain of Cocoa Houses in the UK. The plan involves opening some 60 locations across the country over the next three to five years. The first one will open this year.
Retail analysts consider this a smart move and a way for Cadbury, now part of food giant Kraft, to cash in on the growing market for expensive hot drinks. The hot chocolate twist is probably a good idea provided it’s good hot chocolate.
Tom Allen of Trading Visions has put together a nice collection of blog posts on the intersection between childhood and chocolate. I’ve contributed an post on the record of the chocolate industry to address the issue of child labor in West Africa. Other posts include Amanda Berlan’s contribution on whose voices dominate the debate on child labor, Catherine Phipps post on childhood and chocolate in the North and Tom Allen’s report from a child labor workshop in Ghana.
Green & Black’s has just announced that it will source all commodities from fairtrade suppliers. That’s wonderful news and a boost to fairtrade producers worldwide. In 1994, Green & Black’s introduced the first fairtrade chocolate bar, Maya Gold, to the UK and later to the world. The beans for that bar are sourced from the Toledo Cocoa Growers Association, an organization I have covered on this blog before.
It’s merger time in chocolate land. Now that Kraft has swallowed Cadbury, in effect outbidding the Hershey/Ferrero odd couple, Hershey itself is little more than an ant at the candy company picnic dominated by Mars/Wrigley, Kraft/Cadbury and Nestlé. And Nestlé feels a little piqued having been pushed to third place. What to do? Buy Hershey and reclaim the number one spot. At least that’s what a Reuters report suggests.
Well, it is done, mostly. After opening its mouth a little wider than during its first attempt, Kraft is poised to swallow British chocolate maker Cadbury. Kraft had to increase its offer from 761p to 840p per share and add a 10p per share dividend. Last night, Cadbury’s chairman Roger Carr agreed to recommend to its shareholders to accept this offer.
Although it is still possible for Hershey to make a competing bid as was reported over the weekend, it is unlikely that it will match this offer which is right in line with what Cadbury shareholders expected. Besides, Kraft is about five times the size of Hershey.
