Kraft Foods chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld has admitted to Cadbury staff that there will be “redundancies” as the US food giant looks to integrate the confectioner into its business.
Rosenfeld was addressing Cadbury employees on a conference call when she said combining the two companies would lead to job losses.
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The Kraft boss insisted the acquisition of Cadbury was “about growth” and said the aim of the integration was to allow the combined business “to grow faster”.
“We are starting with this as our premise [but] we believe clearly in certain areas there will be some redundancies and we will have to deal with them over time,” Rosenfeld said.
Kraft sealed its takeover of Cadbury on Tuesday when a majority of investors in the Dairy Milk maker accepted the GBP11.5bn bid.
A day later, Rosenfeld and Cadbury’s outgoing CEO Todd Stitzer held a series of conference calls with the UK group’s employees around the world.
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By GlobalDataOn the call, Rosenfeld said her “executive team” and regional structure would be announced “within the first 90 days”.
“Within six months, we’ll develop a joint recommendation for a common manufacturing network strategy,” she explained.
The integration of what will become the world’s largest confectioner by sales will be lead by Kraft executive Tim Cofer and Cadbury’s Mark Reckitt, Rosenfeld added.
Based on 2008 sales, the combined Kraft and Cadbury will account for 14.9% of global confectionery sales, according to data from Euromonitor and investment analysts Sanford C. Bernstein.
The group’s nearest rival, Mars-Wrigley, sell 14.5% of the world’s confectionery.
Rosenfeld told Cadbury employees that 2010 was a year she has dubbed “BMW – Beat Mars Wrigley”.
She said: “The combination of Kraft and Cadbury creates the biggest and best confectionery company in the world. Tipping those knuckleheads Mars and Wrigley, something we have lusted after forever.”
She added: “The year of BMW – Beat Mars Wrigley – went from an aspiration to a reality. The year we combined the best of both organisations to become a global powerhouse – simply put, the year we reclaimed our rights as the world’s biggest and best confectionery company.
“That is what I see for the year ahead. Not fighting amongst ourselves but fighting against the competition and winning with our consumers and our customers.”
The US group said today (5 February) that over 75% of Cadbury shareholders had accepted its offer and that the UK firm would be delisted from the London Stock Exchange by 8 March.
