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Did Cadbury’s get off scot-free?

Posted in General, Marketing, Mel Varley, Latest reporters' blogs July 17th, 2007 by Melinda Varley

If you ask me Cadbury’s is lucky to be getting away with a £1 million fine for causing 40 people to become ill with salmonella after eating the world’s most desirable food – chocolate.

Cadbury’s has done very little to reassure customers since the outbreak last June, it instead put its Coronation Street sponsorship on hold for a number of weeks and then successfully got out of the £10 million a year contract earlier this month.

The Dairy Milk maker recalled more than one million chocolate bars and then pleaded guilty and admitted to with holding the truth as it did not know the severity of the problem.

Has the world’s most famous chocolate cared too little? A global brand like Cadbury’s would need a lot more bad publicity to stop chocolate lovers from indulging on its bars. However, they should be valuing these customers and reassuring them regardless.

It hasn’t been a good year for Cadbury’s, especially after the disastrous launch of it’s Trident gum, which saw its first ad pulled by the Advertising Standards Authority after allegations of racism.

The company then announced it was splitting it’s drinks and confectionary business in order to concentrate on one area and this was followed by a £300 million cost cutting initiative, which resulted in 15 per cent of its workforce out of work including the managing director of UK and Ireland Simon Baldry.

When the charges were first brought against the company by the Birmingham City Council, the fine was set to be unlimited or carry a maximum jail term of two years.

£1 million seems such a small fee for a company that makes over £1 billion in profit year-on-year.

While Cadbury’s has spent more than £20 million on enforcing new food safety and quality control in its factories, it has done little to reassure the most important people of all, its customers.