Client Newswrap: Cadbury bosses deem ‘seductive devil’ ad too racy for TV and John Lewis staff enjoy 140m bonus pot

Brands
Design agency Smith & Milton has been appointed by Warburtons to redesign its brand identity, including packaging. The move, which follows the baker’s announcement of a £10m marketing push, will include a new logo and point-of-sale material.

Kraft is being investigated by UK regulators looking at whether the US firm made misleading comments during its bid to take over Cadbury. The Wall Street Journal reported that the City takeover panel was probing claims made by Kraft that the chocolate maker’s Somerdale factory, now earmarked for closure in 2011 with the loss of 500 jobs, would stay open if the buy-out was successful.

Cadbury workers at the firm’s Uxbridge head office and Bournville site in Birmingham have been warned to expect up to 150 redundancies after the Kraft takeover. Affected staff in finance, legal and corporate affairs roles entered a 90-day consultation on 1 March. 

Meanwhile, a £1m advertisement for the Midlands firm’s Flake chocolate bar has been axed after executives deemed it too racy. The ad, which showed a beautiful woman being seduced by a ‘devil-like’ character, split opinion in focus groups and the company moved its multimillion-pound advertising budget for the treat away from Saatchi & Saatchi, according to the Daily Mail.

So-called ‘golden hellos’ for top executives will face greater scrutiny ahead of this year’s annual meeting season. The Financial Times has reported that investors have become frustrated over the inflationary effect of signing-on packages such as that offered to Unilever‘s chief financial officer Jean-Marc Huët, who was given a cash bonus of £680,000 and shares worth £2.6m on joining the firm in January.

The Gaymer Cider Co has said it will bring back Dry Blackthorn just a year after it ditched the brand, after fans of the drink in the south-west of England, where the drink originated, mounted a campaign on Facebook.

Retailers
Around 70,000 staff at John Lewis are expected to share a £140m bonus pot this week as the retailer’s Waitrose supermarkets bolstered full-year results. The workers are rumoured to be in line for bonuses worth 14% of their salary, and will range from £1,500 for part-time shop staff to more than £100,000 for top bosses. John Lewis is expected to announce a rise in full-year pre-tax profit to £315m, up from £280m in the previous year, on Thursday.

The founder of Poundland, Dave Dodd, is to launch a new chain of mid-market variety stores. Hub will sell a range of products including home and kitchenware, garden products, stationery, electrical goods, greetings cards and snacks and drinks, and will open its first stores in the coming months. The company plans to have 30 outlets by the end of 2012.

Both the Labour and Conservative parties were forced to deny plans to add VAT to basic food items yesterday, after claims that civil servants, industry bodies and retailers were discussing the move in order to cut national debt. The treasury said there was “absolutely no question” of chancellor Alistair Darling doing so, while shadow chancellor George Osborne blasted the claims as “absolute nonsense”.

The Financial Services Authority has granted the first full service banking licence for a new high street bank since the 19th century. Metro Bank will now be able to open stores from the second quarter of 2010 and will provide services for both consumers and businesses. The first outlets will open in Holborn and South Kensington in London in the next few months, and Metro has said it plans to build more than 200 banks in Greater London over the next decade.

Sales of ice cream sold in tubs have melted during the recession, with shoppers turning to ‘hand-held’ alternatives instead. According to The Grocer, sales of on-the-go ice cream formats such as sticks and bars rose 12.7%, up from a 3.6% drop the previous year, rising 11.4% in value terms. Tubs, meanwhile, grew just 4% in value, down from 5.2% growth the previous year.

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