Cadbury eats up market share

Cadbury owner Mondelez says it is increasing its UK market share after revealing strong figures for the first quarter.

The snack giant increased its global sales by 5.5% to $6.8bn (£5.0bn). In Europe, where it generates 40% of its revenues, sales rose much faster, up 14.4%.

This was boosted by the timing of Easter, which was 15 days earlier in 2018 and crucially moved the fortnight before Easter into the first quarter.

However Mondelez is confident its UK performance is the result of underlying improvements.

“In the UK, we have very strong execution,” said Dirk Van de Put, Mondelez’s chairman and chief executive. “We’ve repositioned the brand, and that seems to be working quite well for us.”

He highlighted the impact of Cadbury’s partnership with the Premier League, which is nearing the end of the first season of a three-year deal, while a new campaign has delivered increases in market share.

“We feel that is something that is going to continue,” he added.

Its chocolate business in the UK “grew double digits” while its chocobakery business – which Van de Put described as “in between our chocolate and our biscuit brands” and includes the recently-launched Cadbury Freddo biscuits – “continued to shine”.

Van de Put, who became chief executive last November and chairman in April after joining from McCain, was upbeat about the group’s global performance.

He said: “We had a good start to the year with improving top-line momentum and continued progress in margin expansion driven by strength in Europe and AMEA.

“We continue to see encouraging snacking category growth trends, especially in emerging markets. We remain focused on executing our 2018 plan while making good progress developing our long-term strategic framework.”