House of Commons committee to investigate takeover of Cadbury
A committee of MPs will this month make plans to investigate the controversial takeover of Cadbury by US giant Kraft foods. At the heart of the issue is the apparent indication that jobs would be safe in the short to medium term and then the immediate U-turn which saw the announcement of a planned closure of Cadbury's Bristol plant next year. This will result in the loss of 400 jobs although few financial papers give the full picture with Cadbury having apparently already earmarked the operation for closure before the takeover.
There is likely to be an interrogation of Kraft Foods directors with the hope of getting to the bottom of what was said in a meeting with Lord Mandelson when discussing potential job losses after the takeover. Lord Mandelson had appeared to indicate that while Kraft Foods had not promised there would be no job losses, he was under the impression the situation would remain unchanged in the short term and indeed in the longer term the UK would become a larger base for Kraft Foods.
If nothing else this investigation by a committee of MPs should give us more of an insight into what was said, what was promised and exactly what is going on within both Kraft Foods and Cadbury.
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