A spokesperson for Mondelez International, which owns the Cadbury brand, has warned consumers in the UK that their favourite chocolate bars could get smaller following the Brexit process.
Glenn Caton, president of the northern Europe division of Mondelez International, told The Guardian newspaper that the company could have to ‘change and adapt to the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU’, by adopting smaller pack sizes in order to maintain its margin.
Consumer First
He told the paper that in spite of possible changes, the company would always “put the consumer at the heart and never compromise on quality and taste”.
In addition, he highlighted that Mondelez has invested a significant amount in its Bournville production facility in Birmingham, the traditional ‘home’ of chocolate production in the UK.
“We have significantly improved productivity and competitiveness,” Caton told The Guardian.
“If you go back five to 10 years ago it was costing roughly three times as much to make chocolate in the UK as it was in Germany. It required investment in order to make sure that we increased productivity and were competitive globally, and we are now.”
No Changes
As well as Bournville, Mondelez also operates a factory in Sheffield and a global food science facility in Reading. Caton stressed to The Guardian that none of these facilities will be affected when the UK leaves the European Union.
The UK, he noted, “to be a huge market. It is still going to be the home of chocolate manufacturing, it is still going to be the home of global research and development. We are still going to have Reading as the centre of science. None of that changes.”
In terms of some of the challenges Caton believes could emerge from the Brexit process, he identifies the need to ensure that the UK retains a “stable and thriving” economy, as well as ensuring that there is “no new, more complex regulation and that there is free movement of goods and minimal barriers to trade”.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
