Cadbury SWOT Analysis (2024)

Company: Cadbury
CEO: Anand Kripalu
Founder: John Cadbury
Year founded: 1824
Headquarter: Uxbridge, United Kingdom
Employees (2022): 140,000
Type: Public
Ticker Symbol:
Revenue (2021): 572.80 Rupees
Profit | Net income (2021): 40.7 Trillion

Fun Fact: John Cadbury began Cadbury as a grocery store in Birmingham where he would make drinking chocolate by hand and sell it as a health drink.

Table of Contents

Cadbury’s Strengths

1. A strong brand name – Cadbury is well known globally as one of the leading confectionery companies. Its brand is extremely powerful, and users around the world associate it with a specific taste. They know what to look forward to as they pick the product from the shelves. A global study found that Cadbury Dairy Milk, one of its products, is the most popular chocolate bar worldwide. It came up as the leading product in 78 countries, including India, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates.

2. Available in many countries across the world – The company does not just have a powerful brand and strong operations in the United Kingdom alone. As a leader in confectionery, it runs operations in more than 70 countries and has been universally positively received. The global presence that Cadbury enjoy drives its revenue and also functions as insurance for the company. In the event one company comes up with unfavorable regulations, Cadbury would still remain operational in the other markets.

3. It comes from a wealthy parent company – Mondelez International, formerly called Kraft Foods Inc, which owns Cadbury. The international food giant has numerous other household brands under its wings, with revenue of 2059 billion Rupees. Thanks to these impressive revenue statistics, the company ends up getting large profits that are re-invested in subsidiaries. Therefore, Cadbury is sure of a massive bankroll in case it faces adversity.

4. Successful marketing and advertising campaigns – The company is known for running some of the best marketing campaigns. It has managed to capitalize on vital events and made the most out of them. Due to these campaigns, the average consumer finds it more natural to choose some of its products when gifting loved ones.

5. Premium quality brand – Cadbury presents itself as a premium brand, ensuring that consumers trust it. It is renowned as a high-quality brand that is moderately priced. Its products are not just releasing sweet chocolate. Instead, they are quality-driven and consumer-oriented.

6. Strong link with Indian customers – Brands operating globally always salivate to make a positive penetration through the Indian market. Cadbury is among the few that have successfully done so. That’s because it capitalizes on the important aspects of Indian culture, which are love, home, and friends. Thanks to this link in the Indian market, Cadbury manages to get record-high sales in India, further bolstering its financials.

7. Enter new markets – Cadbury has an effective creative team that plays a central role in helping them enter new markets. The team comes up with an impressive strategy that helps it seamlessly integrate into new countries.

8. Revamped website – Cadbury’s official website speaks of creativity and gets clicks from all over the world. The well-functioning and engaging website helps keep consumers remembering about the company’s products. More importantly, the websites are market-specific to make site visitors feel they get personalized attention.

Cadbury’s Weaknesses

1. Limited product range – In as much as Cadbury has a global presence, analysts have always criticized it for having a limited product range. The company has so far not expanded into developing and manufacturing other types of products, whether they are food-wise or any other type. Due to this, Cadbury faces a big exposure to the market when things are going well and badly. As the world starts paying more attention to one’s general health, this can be a major problem for the company.

2. Advertising controversies – Even though Cadbury runs one of the best marketing and advertising campaigns, it sometimes finds itself on the wrong side of consumers. As a household product, the company faces significant risks of criticism when advertising. For instance, its controversial worms advertisement made international news.

3. Does not have US rights – Given that Cadbury is a western confectionery brand, one can assume that the US stands out as its biggest market. However, you’d be forgiven for thinking so. The rights to produce Cadbury chocolate in the United States lies with The Hershey Company. That has led to complaints from some customers who argue that the taste differs from the original Cadbury. Additionally, this lack of rights means Cadbury cannot expand its vital chocolate products in the United States.

4. A couple of product recalls – Cadbury has had a few instances where it has recalled some of its confectionery products. The recalls come in different ways, including labeling nut residues as allergen-free or the discovery that some of its products have harmful bacteria. The few products recalls negatively affect the company’s brand name.

Cadbury’s Opportunities

1. Fresh tastes – An opportunity exists for Cadbury to come up with fresh tastes that will take the company a notch higher. Currently, it is focused on customers that have sweet tooth. Mostly these customers eat chocolate bars and small chocolates. That means the introduction of new tastes and new flavors gives Cadbury the opportunity to deliver to another market segment regularly.

2. Rural markets – Cadbury appears to focus largely on urban markets based on the way it has been marketing and distributing its products. Coming up with strategies for penetrating the rural market can be a great opportunity for the company.

Cadbury’s threats & controversies

1. Increasing health campaigns – Key stakeholders are running global advertisements advising consumers on the need to remain health-conscious. That is a major threat to this confectionery because its products can easily be considered not healthy for the average consumer. No matter what Cadbury says about this, studies exist that suggest sweets have a negative effect on one’s health. The shift in consumers becoming more health conscious translates to a decline in sales for Cadbury.

2. Heavy taxation – Some countries are on a mission to reduce the consumption of sugar products. They do this through heavy taxation, including the possibility of introducing a sugar tax. Norway already does this. Introducing such taxes in newer areas leads to high costs for consumers, cutting down Cadbury sales and revenue.

References & more information