A recent settlement between Hershey’s Company and Let’s Buy British Imports, or L.B.B., has sent chocolate lovers running to their nearest British shop. Cadbury’s chocolate made overseas will no longer be imported to the United States.
Lovers of Cadbury Dairy Milk and Flake Bars were unhappy to say the least. Hershey’s Facebook page has been inundated with hundreds of angry posts.
In addition to Cadbury chocolates, L.B.B. has also stated that they will not import any British-made KitKat bars, Yorkie chocolate bars, Toffee Crisps, and Maltesers. Hershey’s believed that Yorkie and Maltesers were too much like their own products and that the packaging of Toffee Crisps was too much like that of the Reese’s peanut butter cup.
Representatives from Hershey state that those products were never meant to be sold in the United States and that L.B.B. violated their trademark and licensing rights. Hershey’s produces its own products under the Cadbury name using different recipes, driving its interest in blocking Cadbury imports.
The difference in recipes is the biggest issue for British chocolate lovers. American chocolate has a lower fat content and contains soy lecithin. Sugar is the top ingredient, rather than milk. While the American versions may have only 11% chocolate, the British version has 20%.
The announcement has the potential to impact American tea shops as well. Some British-style shops make a brisk business selling British food items, including Cadbury.
The problem’s roots can be traced back to 1988 when Cadbury sold the Cadbury Schweppes’ candy operations in the United States to Hershey for $300 million. This candy line included Mounds and York peppermint patties, as well as Cadbury products like Carmello and Dairy Milk. In 2010 Kraft bought out the rest of Cadbury’s U.S. business.
Source: New York Times and Quartz
Lovers of Cadbury Dairy Milk and Flake Bars were unhappy to say the least. Hershey’s Facebook page has been inundated with hundreds of angry posts.
In addition to Cadbury chocolates, L.B.B. has also stated that they will not import any British-made KitKat bars, Yorkie chocolate bars, Toffee Crisps, and Maltesers. Hershey’s believed that Yorkie and Maltesers were too much like their own products and that the packaging of Toffee Crisps was too much like that of the Reese’s peanut butter cup.
Representatives from Hershey state that those products were never meant to be sold in the United States and that L.B.B. violated their trademark and licensing rights. Hershey’s produces its own products under the Cadbury name using different recipes, driving its interest in blocking Cadbury imports.
The difference in recipes is the biggest issue for British chocolate lovers. American chocolate has a lower fat content and contains soy lecithin. Sugar is the top ingredient, rather than milk. While the American versions may have only 11% chocolate, the British version has 20%.
The announcement has the potential to impact American tea shops as well. Some British-style shops make a brisk business selling British food items, including Cadbury.
The problem’s roots can be traced back to 1988 when Cadbury sold the Cadbury Schweppes’ candy operations in the United States to Hershey for $300 million. This candy line included Mounds and York peppermint patties, as well as Cadbury products like Carmello and Dairy Milk. In 2010 Kraft bought out the rest of Cadbury’s U.S. business.
Source: New York Times and Quartz