New jobs as Kraft confirms Bournville as ‘chocolate HQ’
MORE than 50 new jobs are to be created in Birmingham after food giant Kraft confirmed it was making Cadbury’s Bournville HQ the centre of its chocolate operations.
Kraft said it had chosen the site as its ‘global centre of excellence in chocolate R&D’ over alternatives in the US and Switzerland, and that it would be recruiting a similar number of staff in Reading to work on coffee research.
The research and design teams in the UK will grow by nearly 100 to 650 employees by the end of the year.
The US firm has not disclosed the level of investment behind the move but an industry website reported it was spending £6m on the Reading site.
In 2010, Kraft generated 9% of its global revenue from sales of new products. The company is looking to up that amount to 13% by 2013.
Kraft chief executive, Irene Rosenfeld, said the firm had exceeded its commitments to maintain Cadbury’s R&D sites in the UK after its 2010 takeover.
Last month, union leaders demanded assurances the jobs of Cadbury workers in Bournville were safe following the firm’s announcement it was to split its operation in two.
The move will create two separate entities – one looking after confectionary and snacks and the other, its North American grocery business.
The decision will allow the company to focus on the high growth potential of its snacks business, which had revenues of around £19.5bn in Q2, while still managing the US grocery operation.
Unite, the largest union in the country, said it was concerned Kraft might be seeking to pay down some of the hefty borrowings it made during the £11.5bn acquisition of Cadbury last year.
