Cadbury , formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes , is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International spun off from Kraft Foods since It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. It is known for its Dairy Milk chocolate , the Creme Egg and Roses selection box, and many other confectionery products.
One of the best-known British brands, in The Daily Telegraph named Cadbury among Britain's most successful exports. Cadbury was founded in in Birmingham , England, by John Cadbury β , a Quaker who sold tea, coffee and drinking chocolate. Cadbury developed the business with his brother Benjamin, followed by his sons Richard and George. George developed the Bournville estate, a model village designed to give the company's workers improved living conditions.
Dairy Milk chocolate, introduced by George Jr in , used a higher proportion of milk in the recipe than rival products. By , it was the company's best-selling product. Successive members of the Cadbury family have made innovations with chocolate products. Cadbury, Rowntree's and Fry's were the big three British confectionery manufacturers throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Cadbury was granted its first royal warrant from Queen Victoria in It held a royal warrant from Elizabeth II from to In , Sir Adrian Cadbury , chairman of the company for 24 years, produced the Cadbury Report , a code of best practice which served as a basis for reform of corporate governance around the world.
John Cadbury's sons Richard and George took over the business in The firm's first major breakthrough occurred in , when Richard and George introduced an improved cocoa into Britain. Cadbury manufactured their first Easter egg in , creating the modern chocolate Easter egg after developing a pure cocoa butter that could be moulded into smooth shapes. In , the brothers decided to build new premises in countryside four miles 6.
With the development of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway along the path of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal , they acquired the Bournbrook estate, comprising Located next to the Stirchley Street railway station , which itself was opposite the canal, they renamed the estate Bournville and opened the Bournville factory in In , George Cadbury bought acres 49 ha of land close to the works and planned, at his own expense, a model village which would 'alleviate the evils of modern more cramped living conditions'.
