Analysis of The Cadbury company

Cadbury's history for manufacturing chocolate started in Birmingham, which dates back to the early part of the 19th century when John Cadbury opened a shop in the centre of the city. John Cadbury started out as a tea and coffee manufacturer and had now become a manufacturer of drinking chocolate and cocoa. By 1842 John Cadbury was selling sixteen sorts of drinking chocolate. This was the start of the Cadbury manufacturing process. Cadbury's main focus has always been ensuring they produce quality products.

In order to ensure they provide their consumers with quality products Cadbury aims to listen to their customers in order to better understand consumer trends. Cadbury's also deal directly with their consumers and have substantial resources at the business unit level to listen and respond to consumer queries and complaints. In 1847 the business moved to larger premises. John Cadbury went into a partnership business with his brother Benjamin, the business was known as Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham. The business carried on for 32 years.

The business had an advantage because by the mid 1850's the Prime Minister, Gladstone had reduced taxes on cocoa beans, this meant that cocoa and chocolate was in reach of a wider population. The Cadbury brothers, John and Benjamin received their first Royal Warrant on February 4 1854 as 'manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate to Queen Victoria'. In 1861 John Cadbury retired due to failing health handing over the business to his eldest sons Richard and George, who had joined the family business in 1850 and 1856.

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John Cadbury devoted the rest of his life to civic and social work until he dies in 1889. Richard and George Cadbury were 25 and 21 when they took over there fathers business. There first five years involved incredibly hard work, with few customers, long hours and living with little expense. Both brothers thought of taking up new careers: Richard as a surveyor in England and George as a tea planter in India. George's main concern was manufacturing and Richards selling.

They two brothers were dedicated and that lead to the improvement of quality of Cadbury cocoa products, this helped the business survive and it grew. The brothers were dissatisfied with the quality of products produced by all manufacturers, including their own. The brothers took a step in 1866 which changed the British cocoa business. They visited the Van Houten factory in Holland and introduced a new way of processing for pressing cocoa butter from cocoa beans. Cadbury's new cocoa bean was advertised as "Absolutely pure... Therefore the best", the new product was endorsed by trade and medical opinion.

This is what turned the vast struggle of the two brothers into a supreme worldwide company that is known as Cadbury's but the introduction of cocoa essence was not the only innovation that improved the Cadbury Brother's trade: the supply of cocoa butter remaining from the cocoa essence made it possible to manufacture a wide variety of 'eating chocolate'. By 1878 their workforce expanded and they needed more space, so they moved to Bournville. The site came with a few advantages one of which was that the Worcester and Birmingham canal were joined so that large loads of cocoa beans could reach the factory directly from Bristol docks.

The Bournville site was bordered by the Birmingham West and Suburban Railway. Within 10 years of moving to Bournville, the number of employees had risen from 230 to 1,200: by 1899 the number was 2,700 and it had risen to 7,500 by 1919. Trade unions were encouraged but had limited appeal because of the excellent working conditions at Bournville. As the business became larger, a formal management structure was introduced and a work committee was established to discuss all matters. By 1918 they had elected democratic Work Councils, one for men and another for women. In 1965 the two councils merged.

In 1969 due to the move towards unionism in employees, the council was unionized. Cadbury and J. S. Fry & Sons Ltd had merged financially in the year 1919, which was after the First World War By 1969 Cadbury had merged with Schweppes to become Cadbury Schweppes Limited. Schweppes was a drinks company dating from 1792. Richard Cadbury died at the age of 63 in 1899, the Cadbury business became a private limited company: Cadbury Brothers Limited. George Cadbury became chairman of the board; his directors were Barrow and William A Cadbury who were sons of Richard and his own sons, Edward and George Cadbury Junior.

Cadbury uses batch production which enables them to produce a number of similar or identical items in batches or sets. Cadbury also uses continuous flow production which means that the company can produce large numbers of goods continuously. However Cadbury's prefers batch production because it is more flexible. They have introduced a training programme called 'Deal with it' which has been devised by a company called SOG group. Cadbury's uses batch production to make chocolate bars such as Cadbury Dairy Milk. Flow production is used to make Creme eggs. 1. 5 million Creme eggs are made every day.

Cadburys employs over 50 000 people and has manufacturing plants in over 35 countries. Cadbury uses more than 60,000 tonnes of cocoa in the UK each year. As of 1 January 2006 Cadbury had a total of 101 manufacturing plants and bottling facilities, of which 41 were located in Europe, Middle East and Africa. 11 in Americas confectionery; 11 in Americas Beverages; 25 in Asia Pacific; and 13 in Europe beverages. These 67 are involved in the manufacturing of Cadbury confectionery products and the other 34 are engaged in the manufacturing and bottling of beverages. The Marlbrook factory generates 97 000 tonnes of milk chocolate crumb every year.

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