John Cadbury heiress to take on Kraft
An heiress to the fortune of Cadbury, the famous British chocolatiers, is selling her £27 million family estate to launch a chocolate company to rival American giant Kraft, which took over the company earlier this year.
Felicity Loudon, great-great-great granddaughter of John Cadbury, who started the business in 1824, says: “I can’t accept that Cadbury has gone to America. To a plastic cheese company. I won’t accept it. I want to start again. I want to make chocolate and I’m jolly well going to do it.”
Kraft, whose brands include Dairylea, Philadelphia cheese and Ritz biscuits, took over Cadbury in an £11.9 billion deal. It has since launched a multi-million-pound campaign promoting a rival — German-made Milka bars — to Cadbury’s much-loved Dairy Milk chocolate.
Ms Loudon, 61, said her great-grandfather George, who founded Cadbury’s famous Bournville headquarters in Birmingham, “would be spinning in his grave”. She and her husband John, 74, a former merchant banker, have put Pusey House, their eight-bedroom home set in 100 acres near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, on the market. They have lived there for 10 years and Ms Loudon, who runs interior design company Private House, describes it as the “most beautiful house in England”.
She told London’s Times she “has been talking to wonderful chocolatiers”, but refused to divulge details. —IANS
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