The child in me always chooses a Cadbury’s chocolate over a Nestle or an Amul. I even prefer a Cadbury’s bar over other widely-available international brands of chocolate like Nestle, Hershey’s and Van Houten. So you should understand my complete sense of disillusionment when I found out that when the business had almost gone kaput, Cadbury was saved by a machine bought from a Dutchman called Van Houten!
It is reference points like this that make this book written with the permission of Sir John Sunderland, chairman, Cadbury Schweppes, a delicious read. In his foreword, Sunderland ends with saying “I hope that Cadbury’s purple reign will be of interest to you as you face the challenges in your business today”. But apart from the fact that the book is a case study in how to start a small business in a difficult market and go on to make it one of the best-known names in the world, it is full of nuggets of history that will make the story endearing even to those who read the book only because it is about the most memorable name of their childhood.
Given that the story of Cadbury has all the elements of an interesting read — drama, daring, tragedy, rivalry, failure and ultimately, success — it is no surprise that it begins with the quintessential story of a career shift that John Cadbury, a retailer of tea and coffee, made in 1831, switching to manufacturing cocoa products. Not only was he a bold businessman, John was also something of a showman. He invested in Birmingham’s first plate glass window and employed (some things never change) a Chinaman to serve behind the counter.
But John Cadbury would need “much more than an oriental greeter” to make his business succeed in an already-crowded market. His major stroke of luck came when the government slashed import duties on cocoa and he was awarded Queen Victoria’s royal warrant ahead of any other manufacturer, even Fry, the most well-established brand then. But after a bout of rheumatism and his wife’s death, John left his loss-making business to his sons Richard and George Cadbury.
When the brothers took over the business, they were the smallest amongst the 30 manufacturers that they were aware of. After a few disastrous years, the state of the business was so bad that George Cadbury had to stop the morning paper and even went without tea and coffee, despite being a manufacturer for the same.
This was the time when “the long-term Cadbury habit of being proud and quick to borrow ideas” resuscitated the business. Instead of following the example of the market leader, Fry, George Cadbury bought a machine from Van Houten in Holland, with “only sign language and a dictionary with which to negotiate”.
To establish the brand as the best manufacturer of cocoa — at the time when cocoa was sold to be drunk with water or milk, even brick dust and red lead were added to reduce the fat content of cocoa beans — Cadbury even got approval from medical journal Lancet to vouch for their purity.
After that, it was only an uphill climb. Listening to demand and taking cues from market changes, Cadbury began extending its product line. From cocoa essence to milk chocolate, Cadbury soon began its journey to make chocolate a mass-market brand, “The Ford of chocolate”. From adjusting to the changing UK market before and after the two World Wars to expanding overseas and “painting the British Empire purple”, Cadbury was well on its way to becoming a household name in a pre-globalised world, and a brand leader in a globalised one. With images of old products and advertisements that induce a sense of nostalgia and belonging, this book tells its story well.
Cadbury Schweppes is the world’s leading confectionary company, thanks to its three main strengths of chocolate, sugar confectionary and chewing gum but it is with chocolate that we all associate Cadbury. Cadbury may not have conquered the entire world as the definitive brand of chocolate but “then neither has anyone else”.
CADBURY’S PURPLE REIGN
THE STORY BEHIND CHOCOLATE’S BEST-LOVED BRAND
John Bradley
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Pages: 352, Hardcover; Price: $49.95
