You could say that I am a Cadbury baby. I was virtually weened on the brown stuff. Cadbury chocolate has always played an important part in my life and today, it is with great sadness that I say goodbye to a dear friend.
When I was growing up, Cadbury chocolate was given to me as a treat, it was given to me as a reward, it was given to me to cheer me up should I be down and to calm me down should I be playing up.
The Cadbury purple has always been my favourite colour and I could sing everyone of their catchy jingles. I must have eaten every chocolate bar they have ever created.
Yes, I know, that could be the reason why I am the shape of a Cadbury Lime Barrel (to be found in a Milk Tray selection) but it has made me realise sitting here typing this, just how much a part of my life has been made happier by scoffing their sticky delights.
To let Kraft, a big US conglomerate, snatch a part of our heritage away from us right under our noses is too much for me to bear without getting hot under the collar.
Britain's best loved chocolate-maker is no longer ours. Two hundred years of history with quaint but wonderful Quaker traditions has been surrendered to a processed cheese giant with little of no regard of what it has won - to them, it's just another company to be swallowed up. To us, it's our last great asset which will be stripped in no time.
I am mad. No, I am angry. Why has this been allowed to happen?
It's not too late. Please Cadbury shareholders, don't surrender. Think of what you are letting go.
The once sweet taste of success for a family-run firm will now be a bitter pill to swallow seeing the drum-playing Cadbury gorilla wearing a hat made from processed cheese.
I've nothing against Kraft, they saw a firm that was iconic and much loved the world over which was making a profit in today's troubled times.
Mark my words, a few years down the line thousands of loyal Cadbury workers (many of them generations of workers from the same family) will find themselves on the dole when production is shifted abroad to cut costs so Kraft can pay for the loans they have had to take out to pay for takeover.
Hostile takeover? You bet I am hostile towards it and judging by the reaction of people I have heard being insterviewed it should not have been allowed to happen. It wouldn't have happened in France or Germany but we let this go on time and time again. It has got to stop before we lose every scrap of identity and pride in what we produce.
This sucks, it stinks, it's wrong but it's not over till the fat lady sings and I am not singing until the bitter end.
SHAREHOLDERS, SEE SENSE AND DON'T LET THE BIG BOYS WIN - FIGHT, BE STRONG AND HOLD ON.
Keep this wonderful company the way it is and save it for future generations to enjoy.
It's not too late. Say no to the money - you know it makes sense.
And the worst thing is that RBS (84 per cent-owned by us) got involved in the deal — particularly given that it could lead to job losses in the UK and damage the British economy. What do you think about that?
ReplyDeleteYes, I knew about that as a colleague who knows about these things told me that RBS were involved so when I heard that they had a hand to play in funding the take-over I was totally gobsmacked.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the front page of today's Daily Mail, RBS is "offering a £630m loan to help smooth the £11.7bn takeover bid."
So in reality, it's our own money that is helping Kraft to snatch Cadbury away from us.
I hope our Government are really proud of that.
Shouldn't we, as taxpayers and part-owners of RBS, have a say in this?
It is just not on and every one I speak to from family, friends, work colleagues and even the slimming club ladies, are so angry.
If we do boycott buying the chocolate, that won't help the Cadbury workers and the last thing I want to do is to make their working lives any less uncertain, but there must be something we can do, surely?
Here endeth the rant!!!
PS - It was today's Daily Express and not today's Daily Mail front page article about RBS helping Kraft with the finance to buy Cadbury.
ReplyDeleteAli