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Cadbury Trebor Bassett

Cadbury Trebor Bassett is a British confectionery company based at Bournville in Birmingham.

History

In 1824, John Cadbury began vending tea, coffee and, later, chocolate at Bull Street in Birmingham in the UK and then in India. The company was known as Cadbury Brothers Limited. After John Cadbury's retirement, his sons, Richard and George, opened a major factory in the purpose-built suburb of Bournville, four miles south of the city.

After World War I, Cadbury Brothers Limited undertook a financial merger with J.S. Fry & Sons Limited. In 1969, it merged with Schweppes to form the International confectionary and beverage company, Cadbury Schweppes. In 1989, the company purchased Trebor Bassett and formed the UK confectionery subsidiary, Cadbury Trebor Bassett.

As of August 2004, Cadbury Trebor Bassett has 3,000 members of staff in eight factories in the UK, including Marlbrook, Bournville and Somerdale.

Brands

As well as Cadbury's chocolate, the company also owns Maynards and Halls and is associated with several famous types of confectionery including Liquorice Allsorts, Jelly Babies, Flumps, Mints, Dolly Mix, Black Jack chews,Trident, and Soft mints.

Restructuring

In October 2007, Cadbury announced the closure of the Somerdale chocolate factory, formerly part of Fry's. Between 500 and 700 jobs would be affected by this change. Production will be transferred to other plants at Bournville and in Poland.

Health and safety

2006 Salmonella scare

On 19 January 2006, Cadbury Schweppes detected a rare strain of the Salmonella bacteria, affecting seven of its products, said to have been caused by a leaking pipe. The leak occurred at its Marlbrook plant, in Herefordshire, which produces chocolate crumb mixture; the mixture is then transported to factories at Bournville and Somerdale to be turned into milk chocolate.

Cadbury Schweppes did not officially notify the Food Standards Agency until Monday, 19 June, 2006, shortly after which it recalled more than a million chocolate bars.

In December 2006, the company announced that the cost of dealing with the contamination would reach £30 million.

In April 2007, Birmingham City Council announced that it would be prosecuting Cadbury Schweppes in relation to three alleged offences of breaching health and safety legislation. An investigation being carried out at that time by Herefordshire Council led to a further six charges being brought. The company pleaded guilty to all nine charges, and was fined £1 million at Birmingham Crown Court - the sentencing of both cases was brought together. Analysts have said the fine is not material to the group, with mitigating factors limiting the fine being that the company quickly admitted its guilt and said it had been mistaken that the infection did not pose a threat to health.

2007 Recalls

During February 2007, Cadbury announced they would be recalling a range of products due to a labelling error. The products were produced in a factory handling nuts, potential allergens, but this was not made clear on the packaging. As a precaution, all items were recalled.

On September 14, 2007, Cadbury Schweppes investigated a manufacturing error over allergy warning, recalling for the second time in 2 years thousands of chocolate bars. A Printing mistake at Somerdale factory resulted in the omission of nut allergy labels from 250g Dairy Milk Double Chocolate bars.