Cadbury's taken over by Kraft

Sounds so-o-o-o familiar deadlifter. But don't think the poo all falls on the foot solders
Before retiring [ ] I was a "Director" of technical stuff - that's a BS title for manager. But pride myself that I knew more techie stuff than most others.
The same shit, as you eloquently portray, was poured down from my vice-president manager & from higher up the poo pile
Success in modern industry is mostly measured by and your fast track rate depends on B-B-B.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike-B:

quote:

they will keep the quality intact

Its not the quality we are worried about, its the taste. Cadbury's is unique & sets the standard in taste for UK chocolate,
US beers quality is excellent, but it tastes like nothing in a glass.

You aren't drinking the right beer then.

quote:

You aren't drinking the right beer then

So lets have some recommendations.
I've been going to & living in US fora number of years, mostly midwest & great lakes
I like Sam Adams style beers & have tried some local brew stuff around Wisconsin - OK (but)
Going on vacation in May to Denver-Canyons-NP's & on to Minnesota & would love to know what to look out for.

According to Warren we should wait and see.

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
This is an example - if I am reading the runes right - of Globalisation.

You're right George - it's the Globalisation disease that faceless corporates inflict upon us - very sad to lose a great British company to a plastic cheese company - Kraft slices are revolting. Kraft destroyed Terry's - the once wonderful Chocolate orange is now vile. Local produce always tastes better than imported food just like hi-fi from Salisbury is better built and sounds better than imported hi-fi; not much left that is good British fare I'm afraid.

Oh well - have to learn to make my own chocolate now - not keen on Belgium chocolate it tastes funny.

quote:

not keen on Belgium chocolate it tastes funny.

You mean it tastes of real chocolate.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike-B:

quote:

You aren't drinking the right beer then

So lets have some recommendations.
I've been going to & living in US fora number of years, mostly midwest & great lakes
I like Sam Adams style beers & have tried some local brew stuff around Wisconsin - OK (but)
Going on vacation in May to Denver-Canyons-NP's & on to Minnesota & would love to know what to look out for.

I was in Denver for a week in November. When you are there try out the Falling Rocks Taphouse. It is a couple blocks south of Coors Field. 60+ microbrews on tap. If they have try the Blind Pig and Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing try those. They have many different styles on tap there from many small breweries as well. The Great Divide Brewery is a few blocks away and the pints at the tasting room are tasty and cheap. There are several other brewpubs heading back towards the convention ceneter and performing arts complex. A British style pub is Pints which is located near the state office buildings. Several cask ales there as well as a couple hundred single malts.You should pass by the Oskar Blues brewpub and restaurant on the way from Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park. It is worth a stop. The beer at the brewpub is made in the small building next door.

I live in New York State and am more familiar with our local beers but a couple brews from the midwest breweries I thought highly of are from Bells and Three Floyds. Our forumites from that part of the world should have some good suggestions I would think.

If you ever get to Upstate New York, Clarks in Syracuse and Mahars in Albany usually have a few of the Middle Ages brews on cask. Some truly wonderful ale.

Enjoy your trip.

Matt

Cadbury is to chocolate what kraft is to cheese methinks but I love the stuff just as much if not more than real chocolate. I think at one time the EU was going to ban Cadbury from using the word 'chocolate' on their wrappers. US chocolate is indeed dire beyond words. Cadbury whole nut or big easter eggs with thick chocolate - hmmn must go and buy some.

The country of origin can be very important when choosing chocolate. Lind milk chocolate made in Germany ( factory Aachen ) is ok but nothing special, the same from Switzerland ( factory Zürich ) is very delicous. Btw Swiss chocolate is the best imo.

Manfred

Wrong spelling , it is Lindt not Lind, sorry for that.

A Swiss told me, that the milk is the reason for the difference of taste between the German and Swiss chocolade from this manufacturer. The alp meadows offer better food for the cows.

quote:

Originally posted by shoot6x7:
Fan-f__king-tastic,

Another great product about to be destroyed by greedy corporations ...

It's for the good of the shareholders.

Soon, it will all taste like cheese.
MN

Good for Wallace and Grommit, not sure who else.

quote:

Originally posted by Derek Wright:

quote:

not keen on Belgium chocolate it tastes funny.

You mean it tastes of real chocolate.

No that's not exactly what I meant

quote:

Originally posted by Manni:
BTW Swiss chocolate is the best imo.

Manfred

Yes, but I can't say that as it is not very patriotic .... I think it is because the cows have bells.

Still I like Cadbury's crunchie

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Newman:

Soon, it will all taste like cheese.
MN

Not if it's made by Kraft it won't. Have you never tasted Dairylea?

quote:

Originally posted by gary1 (US):

quote:

Originally posted by shoot6x7:
It's for the good of the shareholders.

Don't kid yourself, research has shown that most mergers do not work out well for either company. In fact the predictability of success is the percent ownership by the management.

What usually occurs is that the management of the purchased company makes huge money and the shareholders actually suffer the consequences.

Indeed. Who remembers the catastrophic $360bn AOL/Time Warner merger of 2000? It cost shareholders hundreds of billions of dollars (at the time of the merger AOL was worth $200bn; when it was spun off years later it was worth just over $2bn).

quote:

Originally posted by shoot6x7:
Fan-f__king-tastic,

Another great product about to be destroyed by greedy corporations ...

It's for the good of the shareholders.

When did Kraft become a greedy corp in comparison to Cadbury? What differentiates them?

Chaps

This is frankly a ludicrous topic.

Cadbury's chose to float themselves on the stockmarket in the full knowledge that anyone can buy their shares. Most buyers are pension funds etc from around the world. Even Kraft is multi national.

We are in the global economy and you have to stop thinking British, those days are truly over. I regard myself as European and one day the Dollar will merge with the Euro which is how it should be. Nationalism is on the wane.

If the chocolate is changed for the worse, someone else will come in with an alternative product. That is how the system works and sentiment is pointless.

Regards

Mick

quote:

Originally posted by Mick Parry:

If the chocolate is changed for the worse, someone else will come in with an alternative product. That is how the system works and sentiment is pointless.

Mick

Mick,
I have to respectfully disagree. In theory this will work, but in practice it won't.

The path of least resistance comes to mind. Corporations just want to make money and they will cater to the majority to make that money. Unfortunately the majority are quite happy with mediocrity. So ultimately everything will drift to the mediocre, be it chocolate, cars, stereos.

Let's say that Sony want to take over Naim's market share, they'd buy up the company, make Paul very rich, then over the next years start to dumb down the products, cut development time, reduce quality to the mediocre.

If the system were so wonderful why are we all in the shit right now ?

The bankers are still getting richer, but Joe manufacturer is destitute ...

quote:

Sony want to take over Naim's market share, they'd buy up the company,

Been there - I was involved in that process twice
1: My company - biggest on the planet - buys a little UK company to gain 20% of market share in UK & maybe 2% at best in EU.
We "value engineered" (reduced cost) "added a value proposition for the customer" (told the customer what they needed) "rationalized product" (scrapped the product line & bought in the parent cmpy models)
After 3 years we lost the market to the competition & closed the factory in UK. Why ? customers did not like "big brother" world leaders, prefering a local people orientated company that they can deal with on a more personal basis.
2: We needed to broaden & diversify our portfolio. We buy a seizable company that had top 3 world market share, they made technically related products but in a whole other market.
After 3 years we lost market globaly, possibly now at 5th or 6th position. Why ? customers did not like "big brother" world leaders, prefering a local people orientated company that they can deal with on a more personal basis.

Naim sell to Sony - Sony do the value engineering - we all move to Glasgow.

Chaps

You cannot compare a top FTSE 100 company like Cadbury's to Naim. Cadbury is for cheap mass appeal whilst Naim is up market specialism and Naim has defended its independance by not being listed.

Chocolate can be made anywhere in the world under licence to a fixed recipe. The way we improve our standard of living is for the global market to make things as cheap as possible whilst keeping the quality high.

People moan about things being made in China but at least they are affordable. If you had to pay UK prices for mass produced goods, you would be screaming how expensive it is.

The global market is here to stay, it keeps prices down and prevents wars, so long may it continue.

Also it is in our interest for banks to be profitable, they are essential for commerce to survive.

Regards

Mick

Fair point Mick,
but the downside to globalization is that all the jobs will migrate to China (I exaggerate to make my point) and nobody in the west will have a job to buy the stuff made in China !

At least Joe public will be out of a job, a few skilled elite will have very high paying jobs ...

The triangle of skills and employment rings true. My old CEO when selling globalization told us that the grunt work would be done in China so we can do the higher skill work. But those doing the grunt work here don't have the skills to do the higher jobs and then get laid off. Or if they do have the skills the quantity of business is not big enough to support the additional number of workers doing that higher level job.

It made him rich by sending work to China, but a whole bunch of us lost our jobs ...

Shoot6x7

Work has been flowing in and out of China for decades. Just watch any episode of the Antiques Road show to prove that.

The only way to compete with China for mass produced goods is to pay the workers the same wages. The way forward for the UK is global service industries and value add.

Making millions of chocolates every day is not really the future as a high percentage is going abroad anyway. The UK workers can keep their jobs if they accept Polish levels of pay.

Times change and you either adapt or die.

Regards

Mick

But the cost of housing also needs to drop by a factor of four if the average British worker is to survive on Polish levels of wage!

Yes this would be possible, but we need to retrict the competition for house by removing planning controls so that cheap housing could be built in an unregulated fashion.

This would stop speculators holding onto planning approved land, and thus allow for building on suitable [ie near to places of employment] agricultural land ...

Stark but true.

I would love to see this revolution in housing in the UK, as it would allow anyone with energy and a workish attitude to have their own house to own by the time of their retirement!

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by Mick Parry:
Shoot6x7

Work has been flowing in and out of China for decades. Just watch any episode of the Antiques Road show to prove that.

The only way to compete with China for mass produced goods is to pay the workers the same wages. The way forward for the UK is global service industries and value add.

Making millions of chocolates every day is not really the future as a high percentage is going abroad anyway. The UK workers can keep their jobs if they accept Polish levels of pay.

Times change and you either adapt or die.

Regards

Mick

The problem with the Chinese ethic is that they don't spend the money they earn, they save it !! This is against the biggest edict of capitalism !

If the cost of living in the west would come down then all of us could accept a pay cut.

A very well payed acquaintance of mine, a banker, was blaming the little people for overusing credit. Now he doesn't appreciate this but to simply survive many, many people need to use credit to cover the basic cost of food, shelter and transportation.

I truly believe that this whole problem is due to the mismatch between the pay of CEOs and upper management and those of the front-line worker ...