Green & Blacks to leave Kraft

18 January 2011 – Green & Black’s is looking to buy itself out of Kraft Foods, the US food giant that acquired the organic chocolate maker following the controversial acquisition of Cadbury in early 2010.

Green & Black’s apparently approached Kraft with a preliminary proposal to split from the firm at the end of last year, but was reportedly rejected. Cadbury bought Green & Black’s in 2005 for an estimated £20 million, having already taken a small stake in the group in 2002.

This relationship seemed a natural fit with both companies sharing a passion for high quality ethical products. Green and Black’s have a strong fair-trade stance and Cadbury’s was showing a growing reputation for corporate social responsibility, including its own shift to using fair-trade for Dairy Milk products. Cadbury also said it would run Green & Blacks as a separate outfit.

Five years later, it seems the takeover by Kraft is not such a good match. Green & Blacks management is said to be struggling to retain an entrepreneurial spirit now that they are part of the food giant. Several of the top Cadbury people have left the company since the merger. Then in July, Cadbury’s chief strategy officer, Mark Reckitt, quit to work in the US and joined Green & Black as a one-day a week consultant. Despite this, Kraft states that it is committed to all the brands it inherited as part of the Cadbury takeover and would make continued investment in them.

Yet this statement doesn’t seem to be supported by Trevor Bond, who heads Kraft Foods in Europe, who says, "Green & Black’s is £40m out of a £1bn chocolate business [in the UK]. I would sell more Creme Eggs." The founder of Green & Black’s, Craig Sams, has said he would be interested in taking back ownership of the business, but does not think Kraft want to sell Green & Black’s was founded as an ethical fairtrade and organic chocolate firm in 1991. The "Green" in the name was thought to represent their environmental concerns, and the "Black" the high cocoa content of the delicious chocolate they produced.