It’s very nearly crunch time (if not Crunchie time) for Cadbury as it gears up to finalise its defence again the bid from Kraft Foods.
Over the weekend business secretary Lord Mandelson waded into the fray, warning that Kraft needed to show it had honourable intentions towards the treasured UK confectioner. He even threatened to block any deal based on “short-term profiteering”. It’s pretty robust talk, which should play fairly well to those who still remember the job cuts at Rowntree when it was sold to Nestlé years back.
Kraft boss Irene Rosenfeld is also under the microscope, with Cadbury revealing that she’s in line to pocket a hefty bonus of up to $8m if the US manufacturer has a good year. (Although that’s just pocket change to what RBS is handing out.) Yesterday’s Independent on Sunday had the story, as did the Sunday Times.
Talking of Nestlé – most of the papers are, thanks to its well-intentioned switch to Fairtrade for its leading brand, Kit Kat.
It’s obviously welcome news all round, but certainly doesn’t hurt in a PR context. And it’s not that long ago, of course, that Cadbury switched Dairy Milk to Fairtrade. The same Cadbury that said it would be basing its defence against Kraft’s hostile bid on its ethical credentials. So perhaps that’s another reason why the Swiss giant would be a better fit…
Anyway, the Daily Telegraph leads the way on Kit Kat, closely followed by The Times, an approving Daily Mirror and the Independent.
Elsewhere, Tesco has sparked a “luxury price war” with Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, according to the Sunday Times.
And the Sunday Telegraph spoke to new(ish) Sainsbury’s chairman David Tyler about his plans to help Justin King speed up the growth of the orange-branded retailer.
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