Not really anything to do with bean bags, this post, but being a Birmingham company we feel proud of Cadbury, the world’s most famous confectioner, and just wanted to air our opinions about the speculation of a possible take-over by US conglomerate Kraft (and now, seemingly, other companies are trying to get in on the act too).
As any Birmingham resident will tell you, Bournville – the area of the city which is home to the famous factory and developed by the Cadbury family for their employees during the late 19th to early 20th century – is a beautiful area full of old-fashioned character and lots of splendid greenery. It has been protected for all these years as a monument to George Cadbury’s altruistic belief that his workers deserved respect and a good quality of life. To this day, the area has no pub (originally to deter workers from drinking) and few other facilities with a licence to sell alcohol. This kind of quaintness is what makes Bournville and Cadbury such an endearing British institution.
Now, potentially, due to a few shortsighted shareholders the company is on the brink of being taken over by a mighty but faceless corporation with no soul, no community spirit and no charm – at least not on these shores. Cadbury is a highly successful business with great returns for its investors, but some people are only interested in maximising even bigger gains during the short-term – a corporate greed which helped cause of the current recession. If anybody really thinks a takeover will do anything other than relocate jobs to cheap labour markets and dilute the brand over the longer term, they are, in our opinion, sorely mistaken.
Next time you are relaxing on a Cozibag Bean Bag with a bar of Cadbury chocolate, savour the experience, for it may not be long before another fine British company goes the way of so many others and disappears into foreign ownership forever.
Thanks for reading
Cozibag Bean Bags
