Your Cadbury’s Dairy Milk ... made in Poland
THE US owners of Cadbury have broken their promise to keep production of Dairy Milk chocolate bars at the firm’s historic Bournville base by making them in Poland.
Mondelez International took over the British brand in a buyout in 2010, closing a factory near Bristol at a cost of 400 jobs.
A year later executive Trevor Bond promised a committee of MPs that ‘Dairy Milk would continue to be produced in the UK for the foreseeable future’, according to a report of the interview.
But yesterday it emerged that at least five types of Dairy Milk bars are made 1,000 miles away in the company’s factories in Wroclaw, south-west Poland.
The 300g and 95g Dairy Milk, 110g Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut, 47g Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations and 95g Dairy Milk Tiffin Limited Edition bars all have the factory code that shows they were made in Poland.
The move has been met with concern that links between the brand’s West Midlands home in Bournville, founded in 1824, and its famous product could be weakened.
James Cadbury, a member of the founding family who runs his own chocolate firm, Love Cocoa, said: ‘I’m very disappointed. Bournville and Dairy Milk are synonymous.’
Angus Kennedy, a chocolate expert and editor of the confectionery magazine Kennedy’s Confection, said: ‘I have some sympathy with chocolate manufacturers, who are facing rising costs.
‘But this is one of Britain’s iconic brands and to not make it here is like moving Stonehenge across the Channel to France. Bournville is a key part of that brand’s heritage.’ The switch, which Cadbury claims is because the factory is at capacity, comes after a pledge to the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee in 2011.
Mr Bond, as president of Kraft Foods Europe, which created Mondelez, was asked: ‘Will Cadbury’s
‘A key part of the brand’s heritage’
Dairy Milk continue to be produced in the UK?’ He replied: ‘Yes.’
When asked for how long, he answered: ‘For as long as our consumers are delighted by the taste and the product we produce.’
Mondelez say ‘classic’ Dairy Milk bars are produced in Bournville, but other sizes and flavours such as the 300g bar or Oreo-branded chocolate are made in Poland.
The Wroclaw factory makes new and limited-edition Dairy Milk products and Cadbury’s Milk Tray, which was launched in 1915. The nearby Skarbimierz factory produces Chomp, Picnic and Fudge bars.
The production of Curly Wurlys, Crunchies and Double Deckers was moved to the Polish plant, which was built in 2007, after the closure of the Somerdale factory near Bristol.
Mondelez had pledged to keep the factory open but within weeks, it was closed. Of the 400 workers who lost their jobs 80 were forced into retirement, 26 moved to other Kraft plants and 75 found jobs at a different firm.
In 2015 Mondelez was found to have ‘lawfully avoided tens of millions of pounds’ of tax since its takeover of Cadbury.