Cadbury gobbles up Green & Black's

[tjwmason]

Chocolate giant Cadbury Schweppes has swallowed up organic label Green & Black's but said it would continue to run the brand as a stand-alone business.

The five executive directors of Green & Black's, including chief executive William Kendall and finance director Nick Beart, are understood to have made £5m between them from the deal. They will stay on to run the business as part of Cadbury Schweppes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/05/13/cngreen13.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/05/13/ixcity.html

Green & Black's has provided that magnificent double act of yummilicious products and a social conscience (it is both organic and fair-trade), I'm not entirely sure how this will work as part of a large-scale multinational - though one would note that Cadbury was founded by Quaker philanthropists, and historically had a very good reputation as an employer.

[pnorman]

1. "Cadbury was founded by Quaker philanthropists, and historically had ..."

That was brand new to me and got my attention. Here's what Google came up with: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REcadbury.htm

In this country at least, such humanitarian impulses are a recessive trait, and very rarely last beyond a few generations. But perhaps England might be a little more tradition bound.

pnorman