In 1905 Cadbury launched the world-famous Dairy Milk bar – and it’s still going strong over 100 years later. But what else has happened?
Swiss confectioner Jules Sechaud invented a machine for making filled chocolates in Montreux in 1913. Boxes of chocolates stopped being so expensive and this made it available to the general population.
Cadbury bought Frys in 1919 and the company grew, producing chocolate on an industrial scale that could be enjoyed by everyone. Other big manufacturers appeared: Mars and Hershey in America, Nestlé and Lindt in Switzerland, Rowntree in the UK. Cadbury and other manufacturers started making ‘Countlines’ – bars with other ingredients like nougat, wafer and honeycomb, covered in chocolate – think of Crunchie and Double Decker.
During the Second World War, different manufacturers worked together, so for instance if a huge Government order came in that couldn’t be filled, Nestlé would make a Cadbury’s bar or vice versa. Cadbury Dairy Milk disappeared during the war years, because there was no fresh milk available – instead there was Ration Chocolate made with powdered milk.
Throughout the 20th century there was fierce competition – chocolate had become a huge business, and details of new bars were kept top secret to stop rivals copying them!
These days there are thousands of types of chocolate to choose from – you can drink it, eat it, spread it on a sandwich, pour it on your ice cream or make cocktails with it. There’s also a growing interest in organic cocoa and wellbeing. The World Cocoa Foundation was founded in 2000 by a group of manufacturers including Cadbury, in order to safeguard the interests of cocoa farmers around the world.
An example of Cadbury’s continued support for cocoa farmers is through the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. Cadbury is providing millions of pounds worth of investment to help boost crops and make the lives of cocoa farmers better – it’s both a link back to the Cadbury family’s principles and a way of guaranteeing the supply of cocoa for future chocolate lovers.