Kraft Foods looking to freeze US pension scheme
Kraft Foods has today revealed plans to freeze future payments towards its US pension scheme from 31 December 2019. While this date is obviously some way off into the future it has prompted concern amongst the Cadbury workforce and Cadbury pension fund trustees. So what plans does Kraft Foods have for the Cadbury pension scheme?
At this point in time there is actually a deficit in the Cadbury pension scheme which will need to be addressed in the short term to see exactly how this position will be rectified. It is a little-known fact that the Cadbury pension scheme trustees could in fact derail the takeover by Kraft Foods if an agreement between the two parties cannot be reached. The trustees of the Cadbury pension scheme are totally independent of the company itself and are representing members of the pension scheme as a whole.
Kraft Foods was fairly vague in its comments regarding the Cadbury pension scheme and kept very quiet on what were referred to as "anticipated contributions". At this point in time it looks as though we could see something of a conflict between Kraft Foods and the Cadbury pension scheme trustees in what is a very important area of future financial planning for the Cadbury workforce.
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