From slums to global success

CADBURY dates to 1824, when Quaker John Cadbury opened a grocer’s shop in Bull Street, Birmingham. Among other things it sold cocoa and drinking chocolate – seen as an alternative to alcohol, which Quakers deemed bad for society.

The firm began manufacturing in 1831, and by 1842 it was selling 16 types of drinking chocolate.

The business passed to sons Richard and George who, at the end of the 1870s, moved the chocolate factory out of the Birmingham slums and into what became the leafy suburb of Bournville. They added a village green and cricket pavilion. Cadbury milk chocolate bars followed in 1897, then Bournvillle dark chocolate in 1908, then a host of others. In 1928 came the company’s Glass And A Half symbol for Dairy Milk. Cadbury merged with Schweppes in 1969, but split in 2008.

In 2010, Cadbury was bought by Kraft, despite opposition. Kraft boss Irene Rosenfeld, who masterminded the deal, pocketed a £17million pay and perks deal the previous year.

SON George Cadbury