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Foodie News 9/12/11

Publish date 09/12/2011 Frog

Foodie News time again – this week we’re looking at Sherry enjoying a revival, job losses at Cadbury and the Tesco assassin.

Felicity: I was sad to hear the news this week that Kraft is to cut 200 jobs at the Cadbury plant in Birmingham. Despite a pledge to invest £50million in the plant Kraft has announced the losses will be made through redeployment and voluntary redundancies over two years, starting next March. This is such a shame for Cadbury, a British institution that has been affected badly by the recession thanks to rocketing cocoa prices and the take over by US company Kraft. The BBC has written an interesting piece about the takeover and the impact it has had so far. Whilst Cadbury will continue to be a great British business in the future it will have to adapt to fit its new owners and the pressures created by the economic downturn.

Angharad: We all know  supermarkets are constantly extending their offering but this community board notice in Tesco was more than a little different to their usual products! It got a lot of people talking on Twitter when I posted it but so far no one has come forward as the mystery assassin. You have to wonder whether the board gets checked by staff regularly – but despite the services on offer not fitting with the Tesco brand, the offer of a potential BOGOF certainly does!

Lauren: The news this week is that Sherry is making a comeback. Despite not being around in its 70′s heyday I love sherry and am really pleased it’s back to being ‘cool’ again! Some have asked whether the revival is a result of the Downton Abbey effect and I don’t think they are far off. The show is so popular with a wide age demographic and no PR is bad PR in this case. Sales are currently up 9% this year – showing brands that with the right  exposure a seemingly unfashionable product can be brought back to life again.