Kraft CEO to miss UK political inquiry on Cadbury, report
According to media reports, Marc Firestone, executive director of Kraft Foods, Trevor Bond, president of Cadbury, and Richard Doyle, human resources director of Cadbury, will be questioned by the Business Select Committee, but Kraft's chairman and chief executive Irene Rosenfeld will not be present.
Broken pledge
The US food giant has come under attack for turning back on its pledge last September to keep Cadbury's Somerdale plant open.
Last month it said it was ‘unrealistic’ to reverse Cadbury’s plans to shut the factory.
Kraft said, by way of explanation, that Cadbury had already spent £100m (€110m) on building new facilities in Poland and most production would be transferred by the middle of this year.
The plant is expected to close in 2011, resulting in the loss of around 400 jobs.
Unions angered
Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the union Unite, is also set to appear in front of the committee of MPs and he said that it was fundamentally wrong that a debt-laden US multinational took over a successful British company.
“The immediate priority is cast-iron guarantees for the Cadbury workers. We need a new Cadbury’s Law, preventing hostile takeovers which are neither in the public interests or the long-term interests of household-name British companies.
Cadbury workers deserve security for the future and then never again should British workers be sold to the highest bidder,” said Dromey.
And Kraft further angered unions in the UK when it announced its first job cuts soon after the takeover, with up to 150 jobs threatened at Cadbury’s offices in west London, and Bournville in Birmingham.
Takeover concerns
A complaint against Kraft has also been lodged with the City takeover panel alleging the US group misled Cadbury employees and investors during its battle for the Dairy Milk maker.
The complaint to the takeover panel was made by Amoree Radford, who leads the Save Cadbury’s campaign to preserve Keynsham’s chocolate factory, and the Conservative Party’s Jacob Rees-Mogg.
They allege that Kraft did not adhere to UK regulations requiring firms to prepare statements with the highest degree of care and accuracy.
The letter states: “The speed with which the closure was announced indicates that the stated intention to keep the factory open was either made without due care or was knowingly inaccurate.
“It is our view that this type of behaviour discredits the City, undermines confidence in financial markets and deserves stern disciplinary action.”
