Cadbury hires 50 tasters to test chocolate for a living

Times

2 days ago

If you eat chocolate you probably have a repertoire of firm favourites that you return to, but Cadbury still hopes to tempt you into trying something new. Its owner Mondelez International has invested nearly £3.5 million on a new tasting centre in Bournville as it doubles down on the UK as its global research hub for chocolate.
Chocolate lovers will regularly join 50 newly-trained tasters at the consumer tasting facility, which opens in June inside an existing building, as the company explores new aromas, textures and flavours — or what it calls 'attributes'. There were thousands of applicants for the roles which will play a key part in product development for much-loved brands including Cadbury, Milka and Toblerone.
According to Louise Stigant, the UK managing director, a typical session will see a panel of 12 chocolate tasters sample products and discuss their attributes, with the feedback used to refine the product's development. But this is not an all-day chocolate binge: people can only try things out for a couple of hours before their taste buds become overwhelmed.
Stigant said: 'I think it should give us an advantage so that we understand our consumers better. The consumer research piece should then help us to make sure that we're both making quality products consistently and getting clearer about innovation.'
Every chocolate product that Mondelez makes and sells in over 150 countries around the world begins its development in the UK. Since 2018 Mondelez has invested £16 million in its research and development facilities here and now has more than750 research personnel including food scientists, nutritionists and engineers.
Its latest product launch is a collaboration with Lotus Bakeries' Biscoff. The resulting Cadbury Dairy Milk Biscoffhas sold several million pounds worth of units in its first month. Stigant said: 'The textural piece is what people seem to be really intrigued by: the softness, the chocolate and the creaminess, and then there's a crunch with Biscoff. It's that newness that excites people.'
She added: 'Having the R&D centre alongside manufacturing has meant that we've been able to move with pace from the concept idea last June through to actually having it on the shelves in the last few weeks.'
Cadbury has never stood still. The brand traces its roots back to 1824 when John Cadbury opened a grocer's shop in Bull Street, Birmingham. Among the groceries, he sold cocoa and drinking chocolate. In 1879 John's son George and brother Richard moved their business from Birmingham's city centre to a site four miles away, naming it Bournville after the nearby stream, the Bourn. The move was driven by both the need to expand their business and a desire to provide better living conditions for their employees.
Dairy Milk was launched in 1905 and by 1914 had become the company's best-selling product. Over the years since then the chocolate maker has created plenty of other famous products including Roses, Creme Eggs and Heroes.
A new era dawned in 2010 when the US consumer goods giant Kraft Foods bought Cadbury for £11.5 billion after a hostile takeover battle that triggered widespread opposition over fears the British firm would lose some of its lustre. Kraft subsequently spun off its global snacks business, including Cadbury, as Mondelez International.
Yet over the past ten years Mondelez has invested nearly £300 million in its UK manufacturing footprint, increasing production efficiency by 30 per cent and expanding overall capacity. It has eight sites across the UK, employing over 4,000 people directly and 10,000 indirectly. This includes factories in Bournville and Sheffield, a cocoa bean processing plant in Chirk, north Wales, and a milk processing facility in Marlbrook, Worcestershire.
Stigant said the aim is to 'compete in the UK from a manufacturing point of view. We're the number one brand in the UK and have been for quite a period of time, and I think that's an important indicator that the brand is being loved and treated in the way it should be'.
FENNELL PHOTOGRAPHY
The appetite for Cadbury's products shows no sign of waning despite the popularity of anti-obesity jabs, according to Stigant, who pointed out that the overall snacking category is still growing.
It is not all plain sailing, however, given the high price of cocoa and the rise in other input costs. 'We have absorbed some of those and then we've had no alternative but to pass on some of those costs to consumers through either very carefully thought-through pricing or by reducing the size of products.'
Products that do not take off are discontinued. Such was the fate of the low-sugar version of Dairy Milk, dropped in 2023 despite a three-year development by 20 scientists and £2 million marketing spend.
Next to be put to the consumer test is temperature-activated packaging. Available from June on some limited edition Dairy Milk bars, the packaging features four summer-themed designs: deck chairs, umbrellas, kites and inflatables. Using so-called thermochromic technology, the wrapper changes to reveal a deep blue colouring when each bar is chilled.
At Christmas there are likely to be more new treats from the 201-year old firm but they are being kept strictly under wraps for now.