Upheaval for a number of leading confectioners, reports suggest Cadbury may enact a number of job cuts while Mars joins rival Hershey in pushing up prices for its brands.
Cadbury is looking to cut 330 positions across it operations in Australia and New Zealand in a bid to refocus its chocolate operations, according to reports.
Following an announcement in June that the confectioner was looking to reduce it workforce by 15% amidst increased production costs, the company is now set to shake up its Australasian operations, according to the New Zealand Herald newspaper.
Mars looks set to follow some of its most prominent rivals in announcing price increases designed to offset material costs.
The confectioner is set to push up the wholesale prices for its chocolate products by about 12% to reflect higher own payouts for everything from nuts and cocoa to fuel, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The changes, which are expected to come into place by the middle of October, would reflect a third price hike across the group’s brand portfolio this year alone, the report added.
News of the move comes after last weeks announcement by US-based Hershey was to raise its own wholesale prices for chocolate bars by 11%.
The increase, which will apply to its entire domestic product line, comes on the back of a “significant” rise in input costs, including raw materials, packaging materials, fuel and transportation.
In Hershey’s case, analysts said they did not expect a significant impact on the group’s sales over the upcoming financial period as a result of these moves.
However, price increases have not been the only strategy adopted by confectioners to alleviate cost concerns in the current market.
Manufacturers have moved manufacturing facilities to cheaper areas amid the challenging economic environment. Hershey, for example, closed plants in the US and Canada in 2007 and moved the operations to Mexico to save costs.
Despite changes in the economy, chocolate sales remain strong in both the US and Europe. It said the market is predicted to increase at a rate of about 4% per year during the next six years.
