West Midlands Mayor urges Cadbury owner Mondelez to quit Russia

ANDY STREET has called on the owner of Cadbury to quit doing business in Russia, as he urged bosses to reflect on the confectionery brand’s Quaker roots.

In a private letter to Mondelez chief executive Dirk Van de Put, the Conservative West Midlands Mayor said the company should revisit its stance on Russia given the war in Ukraine.

Mr Street said the US business – which bought Cadbury in 2010 – should consider the “founding Cadbury family’s Quaker faith and the role of pacifism in those beliefs”.

It comes after Mondelez, which also owns the Toblerone and Oreo brands, has defended its decision to continue operations in Russia despite fierce criticism from campaigners. Mr Street has waded into the debate given Cadbury’s roots in the region, as the company was founded in Birmingham 200 years ago by John Cadbury, a Quaker.

Despite being owned by Mondelez, it still makes its chocolates from its base in Bournville. The letter sent to Mr Van de Put yesterday, said: “In the last few weeks I have received correspondence from both local and international organisations stressing their concerns that Mondelez’s continued operations in Russia will have a detrimental effect on Cadbury as a brand and a West Midlands institution – concerns I wholeheartedly share. Mondelez’s continued operations in Russia is causing upset and disbelief across the West Midlands – and indeed the wider UK.”

While other Western companies have sought to end operations in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mondelez continues to employ around 3,000 people in the country across three factories. It now operates its Russian business as a separate, standalone entity. Accounts show that Russia brought in 2.9pc of its global revenues in 2023, with the company claiming in February that investors do not “morally care” about its presence in Russia.

Along with other businesses still operating in Russia, Mondelez has been called an “international sponsor of war” by the Ukrainian government.

Criticism has led to Mondelez pledging upwards of $15m (£12m) in financial support for Ukrainian citizens, while it has also discontinued advertising and new product launches in Russia. However, Mr Street added: “While I acknowledge your financial contribution to Ukraine, your continued operation in Russia is impossible to look past.”

His comments come ahead of a mayoral election in the West Midlands tomorrow in which the incumbent will battle for his position against Labour’s Richard Parker.

A spokesman for Mondelez said: “If stopping our operations in Russia would stop the war, we would do it immediately. Unfortunately, it is not that straightforward.”