Cadbury facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Cadbury

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Confectionery
Founded	4 March 1824; 201 years ago (1824-03-04) in Birmingham, England.
Founder	John Cadbury
Headquarters	Uxbridge Business Park, Greater London, England
Key people	Dirk Van de Put (chairman and CEO)
Brands	List of Cadbury brands
Parent	Mondelez International

Cadbury is a famous British company that makes delicious chocolates and sweets! It's one of the biggest confectionery brands in the world, known for popular treats like Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and Cadbury Roses boxes. Cadbury is based in Greater London, England, and sells its yummy products in over 50 countries. Since 2010, it has been owned by a company called Mondelez International.

Cadbury used to be called Cadbury's, and for a while, it was known as Cadbury Schweppes after merging with the company Schweppes in 1969. In 2013, The Daily Telegraph newspaper even called Cadbury one of Britain's most successful exports!

The Sweet History of Cadbury

Cadbury was started in 1824 by John Cadbury (far left). Here are two old ads for Cadbury's cocoa: (middle) from The Graphic, 1885; (right): 1900 drawing by Cecil Aldin for The Illustrated London News.

How Cadbury Started

The story of Cadbury began on 4 March 1824. A man named John Cadbury, who was a Quaker, started selling tea, coffee, and drinking chocolate. He sold these items from his shop in Bull Street in Birmingham, England.

By 1831, John Cadbury began making his own cocoa and drinking chocolates. He made them in a factory on Bridge Street. At first, these products were quite expensive. This meant mostly wealthy people could afford them.

In 1847, John Cadbury teamed up with his brother Benjamin. Their company became known as "Cadbury Brothers." They even introduced their own chocolate bar in 1849. That same year, Cadbury and Fry's chocolate bars were shown at a big trade fair in Birmingham.

The Cadbury brothers opened an office in London. In 1854, they received a special honour. They were given a royal warrant to make chocolate and cocoa for Queen Victoria. However, the company faced tough times in the late 1850s.

A New Beginning

John Cadbury's sons, Richard and George, took over the business in 1861. The company was struggling a lot back then. The number of workers had dropped from 20 to just 11, and the company was losing money.

But the brothers worked hard to turn things around. By 1866, Cadbury was making a profit again! They changed the company's focus from tea and coffee to chocolate. They also made sure their chocolate products were of much better quality.

Cadbury Factory, Bournville (pictured in 2009) is located on the south side of Birmingham, England.

The Famous Dairy Milk

In 1905, Cadbury launched its super popular Cadbury Dairy Milk bar. This chocolate was very high quality and had more milk than any other chocolate bar before it. George's son, George Cadbury Jr, and his team developed it.

It was the first time a British company could make milk chocolate for everyone. From the very beginning, it had its famous purple wrapper. Dairy Milk was a huge success! By 1914, it became the company's best-selling product.

The packing room at Bournville, around 1903.

Cadbury's chocolate bars (Dairy Milk back of tray), around 1910.

Cadbury Wharf, Knighton, Staffordshire. Cadbury used this site from 1911 to 1961 to process milk and make "chocolate crumb" for their Bournville factory.

In 1919, Cadbury joined forces with another chocolate company called Fry's. This brought famous brands like Fry's Chocolate Cream and Fry's Turkish Delight into the Cadbury family. Many small Fry's factories closed, and production moved to a new Somerdale Factory near Bristol.

Cadbury kept adding new treats to its range. These included Flake (1920), Creme eggs (1923), Fruit and Nut (1928), and Crunchie (1929). By 1930, Cadbury was one of Britain's largest manufacturing companies.

More popular chocolates followed, like Dairy Milk Whole Nut in 1933. In 1938, tins of Cadbury Roses were introduced. These were a big hit, especially as Christmas and Mother's Day gifts.

By the mid-1930s, chocolate was no longer a luxury. Cadbury estimated that 90% of British people could easily afford to buy chocolate. By 1936, Dairy Milk alone made up 60% of the UK milk chocolate market!

The Cadbury Schweppes logo used until 2008.

An English Heritage blue plaque honouring Richard Cadbury, one of the founder's sons. It was put up in Edgbaston, Birmingham, in 2002.

Cadbury's Somerdale Factory in Keynsham near Bristol (1921–2010).

Cadbury's sign at Somerdale.

Becoming Part of Mondelez

On 19 January 2010, it was announced that Kraft Foods would buy Cadbury. The deal was worth about £11.5 billion (US$18.9 billion). Kraft said this deal would create a "global confectionery leader."

The idea of Kraft buying Cadbury was not popular with many people in Britain. However, on 2 February 2010, Kraft successfully bought enough shares to complete the deal.

Cadbury World exhibition at the Library of Birmingham, July 2016. The miniature Shakespeare's Globe theatre and a manuscript are made from Cadbury chocolate.

An early Cadbury chocolate wrapping machine on display at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum.

Fun Facts About Cadbury

• Cadbury made its first Easter egg in 1875. They created the modern chocolate Easter egg by finding a way to mould pure cocoa butter into smooth shapes.
• In 1861, the company started making "Fancy Boxes" – decorated boxes of chocolates. In 1868, they sold chocolates in heart-shaped boxes for Valentine's Day.
• Cadbury opened its first factory outside the UK in 1918. It was in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
• Between the two World Wars, Cadbury sent chocolate samples to British schoolchildren. They asked for their opinions on new products. One of these children was Roald Dahl, who later wrote the famous book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
• In January 2017, Cadbury became the official snack partner of the Premier League football league. They sponsored awards like the Premier League Golden Boot.
• The swirly Cadbury logo comes from the signature of William Adlington Barrow Cadbury. He was the founder's grandson, and his signature was used in 1921. It became the worldwide logo in the 1970s.
• The company chose purple as its main colour in 1905. This was to honour Queen Victoria, who had passed away four years earlier.
• Every year, Cadbury runs a "Secret Santa" campaign. It uses both online and offline advertisements.

Where Cadbury Works

Head Office

Cadbury's office block in Bournville.

Cadbury's main office is called Cadbury House. It's located in the Uxbridge Business Park in Uxbridge, Greater London, England. The company uses a large office space there. When Kraft bought Cadbury, they confirmed that the head office would stay in Cadbury House.

Production Sites

Bournville

The founder's son George Cadbury established Bournville.

The Cadbury factory in Bournville is about 4 miles south of Birmingham, England. It was opened in 1879 by George Cadbury, John Cadbury's son. George wanted a special place where workers could live and work. He made sure that one-tenth of the Bournville area was set aside for parks and open spaces. It became known as "the factory in a garden."

Cadbury's dark chocolate bar, Bournville, is named after this special village. It was first sold in 1908. Today, almost 1,000 people work at the Bournville factory. In 2014, Mondelez announced a big investment in the site. This showed that Bournville is still very important to the British chocolate industry.

Bournville is also home to Mondelez's Global Centre of Excellence for Chocolate research and development. This means that every new chocolate product created by Cadbury starts its life at the Birmingham plant.

Milk processing plant at Cooee, Burnie, Tasmania.

Former factory in Dunedin.

Advertising

The signature logo as displayed at Cadbury World in Bournville, England. In 1905 the company chose purple as it was Queen Victoria's favourite colour.

1890 advertisement in the British weekly Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.

Cadbury Products

Cadbury chocolate stall at London's Heathrow Airport.

A Cadbury Wispa chocolate bar that has been split in half. These are available in the UK.

A Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel bar in its foil wrapper.

A Cadbury Flake split in half. They are popularly served in ice cream in a cone ("99 Flake").

Cadbury Creme Eggs are sold between New Year's Day and Easter.

Cadbury's Christmas selection box. A boxed gift of assorted bars is a staple of Christmas, a tradition that in the UK goes back over 100 years.

Cadbury makes many famous chocolate bars. These include Dairy Milk, Crunchie, Double Decker, Caramel, Wispa, Boost, Picnic, Flake, Curly Wurly, Chomp, and Fudge. They also make chocolate Buttons.

For special occasions, there are boxed chocolates like Milk Tray. And for holidays like Christmas and Halloween, you might find twist-wrapped chocolates called Heroes. Selection boxes, which have a mix of Cadbury bars, are a classic Christmas gift in Britain. Cadbury Roses have been popular Christmas gifts since the late 1930s.

Creme Eggs are only sold between New Year's Day and Easter. They are the most popular chocolate in the UK during that time!

Besides chocolate, Cadbury also owns other sweet brands like Maynards and Halls. This means they are linked to many other sweets. These include Liquorice Allsorts, Jelly Babies, Flumps, Mints, Black Jack chews, Trident gum, and Softmints.

Here are some notable products Cadbury has introduced over the years:

See also

In Spanish: Cadbury para niños

• Cadbury World
• Cadbury family
• Cadbury Athletic F.C.