Kraft keeps promise: shuts Cadbury’s Somerdale factory

Kraft Foods has kept its promise of closing Cadbury's Somerdale factory in Keynsham near Bristol -  despite having been at great pains to assure the British public and Cadbury workers that it was comiitted to to save the plant from closure, during its 2009 hostile takeover of the UK confectioner.

In October 2007, Cadbury announced that it would close its Somerdale factory and transfer the operations to Poland and to other plants in England, which would lead to between 500 and 700 job losses.

The company was investing around $100 million in expanding and upgrading its Polish factory.

At the height of the four-month $19.6-billion hostile takeover of Cadbury, which was opposed by the Cadbury union and British public, Irene Rosenfield, the CEO of Illinois-based Kraft had announced that in the event of Cadbury merging with Kraft, she would save the Somerdale factory from closure.

After securing Cadbury in February 2010, it took just a week for Rosenfield to renege on her pledge on the plea that she was not aware how far Cadbury had advanced in its plans to shutter the factory and move its operations to Poland.

Although Kraft had no access to Cadbury's books during its hostile takeover, but being in the same industry and armed with a battery of advisors, Kraft is believed to have known how far Cadbury had progressed to expand its Polish factory.