Cadbury’s gets £75m to spend on Bournville January 23, 2014 THE US owner of iconic British chocolate maker Cadbury’s yesterday unveiled a £75m investment in the company’s historic Bournville plant. Mondelez International, which houses the food brands of US cheese giant Kraft, said it was willing to put the money into Bournville to help update the production of so-called assortments – the chocolate it makes [...]
Behind the deal July 16, 2014 LAZARD | ANTONIO WEISS 1 Weiss is the publisher of The Paris Review, a quarterly literary magazine co-founded in 1953 by George Plimpton. He was previously the magazine’s editor 2 He sits on the board of trustees at The Frick Collection, New York’s famous art museum, which includes works by John Constable, Francois Boucher and [...]
Brand Index: Resisting a Ritz? It’s crackers not to learn this lesson July 22, 2014 WHO can resist a Ritz? That was the question in TV ads way back in the 1970s for the famous crackers. Mondelez International is bringing Ritz Crackers back to TV for first time in 30 years. In an attempt to make the brand relevant to younger consumers, the company announced recently a six-week campaign to [...]
Cadbury loses right to purple packaging October 4, 2013 Mondelez International which makes Cadbury Dairy Milk bars, has lost its battle with Nestle to keep the exclusive use of the colour purple in its packaging of chocolate products. The UK court of Appeals overturned a decision in 2012 that ruled the shade of purple was distinctive to the Cadbury Dairy Milk bars. The 2012 [...]
City & Gild: Why we should celebrate the sale of British brands May 23, 2014 I have been following the Pfizer AstraZeneca shenanigans with fascination and interest. From what I can gather, a big American pharmaceutical company wants to buy a big British pharmaceutical company to become the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world. Lots of people are outraged because yet another British business is to be sold off to [...]
City & Gild: Why we should celebrate the sale of British brands May 23, 2014 I have been following the Pfizer AstraZeneca shenanigans with fascination and interest. From what I can gather, a big American pharmaceutical company wants to buy a big British pharmaceutical company to become the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world. Lots of people are outraged because yet another British business is to be sold off to [...]
R&R Ice Cream chief James Lambert talks dessert and bull semen September 7, 2014 It’s often said that entrepreneurs should stick to what they know. Bill Gates knew software, hence Microsoft; Arianna Huffington knew media, hence The Huffington Post. But it’s not a piece of advice that James Lambert, the now-retired founder and former chief executive of Yorkshire-based R&R Ice Cream, paid any attention to. Before starting the business [...]
Reckitt to float pharmaceutials arm in London July 28, 2014 Reckitt Benckiser, the owner of Nurofen painkillers and Dettol cleaning products, is to spin-off its pharmaceuticals business as it focuses on growing its core consumer brands. The FTSE 100 company said yesterday that a demerger of its RBP unit would take place over the next 12 months with a separate listing on the London Stock [...]
Why the government doesn’t need to protect Astrazeneca May 8, 2014 PFIZER’S bid for Astrazeneca is the biggest potential foreign takeover of a UK company ever, and the most controversial since Kraft’s successful acquisition of Cadbury in 2010. Politicians and much of the scientific establishment have called for the public interest test for takeovers – which now only permits the government to intervene when national security, [...]
China meat scandal: Why consumers are turning on Western fast food brands July 23, 2014 TRUST lies at the heart of any company’s reputation, but its importance is amplified when the product being delivered is food. This is the hard truth facing the likes of Starbucks, Yum Brands – owner of KFC – and other leading Western fast food retailers, which have all pulled products from their outlets, after allegations [...]