Cadbury: The biggest changes were related to brands

Jose Bonito, who has been in charge of Cadbury Romania since April, says he wants to continue to direct the company toward brands. One of the first moves the British group made was to give up bulk sales. “Since the takeover of Kandia-Excelent, we’ve focused on operating assets. These, together with the team and the brand portfolio of Romania are the most important ‘assets’ of the Romanian business,” says Portuguese born Jose Bonito, in his first interview with the Romanian press. Last year, Cadbury took over 95% in domestic sweets producer Kandia-Excelent, for a total of 60m pounds (87.4m euros). The deal marked Cadbury’s entrance on the domestic market. “Technically, the integration of Kandia-Excelent in Cadbury has been finalised. So far, the investments we operated primarily targeted brands,” states Bonito. The latest investments targeted the rebranding of Kandia chocolate. “Further changes in the domestic portfolio are unlikely this year, but we may continue the process of reinventing brands in the following years,” Bonito says. Amid consumers’ rising incomes, bulk sales are losing ground to branded products. “We gave up bulk sales because we’re focusing on brand development. Bulk sales were not helping us to stand out from the other players,” explains Bonito.