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Abstract
This article uses company archival data, supported by evidence from the trade press, to examine the development of the manufacturer–retailer relationship in the case of Cadbury and the supermarket retailers distributing its products in the period 1953–1975. It reveals the influence upon Cadbury’s marketing strategies and practices of the increasing importance of supermarket retailing in relation to the confectionery as well as the grocery goods trades. It also provides new insight into the significance of these changes for Cadbury’s relationships with other manufacturers, and with small-scale retailers typified by confectioners, tobacconists and newsagents.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Business Archives Council for the Business History Bursary that funded the archival research underpinning this study. We would also like to acknowledge the help of Sarah Foden (Information Manager) and Jackie Jones (Information and Library Service) at Cadbury-Mondelēz International for their support and access to the archive. Finally, we would like to thank Catherine Laitner for drawing our attention to several archive sources.
Notes
1. The discussion on self-service retailing in this article relates to its application in the grocery trade.
2. Wilson and Thomson, The Making, 216.
3. Fitzgerald, ‘Marketing,’ 416.
4. There is, of course, business history research on Cadbury’s marketing activities more generally. See, for example, Fitzgerald, ‘Products’; Da Silva Lopes, ‘Building’.
5. Morelli, ‘Explaining’.
6. McClelland, ‘Economics.’; Birchall, Co-op.
7. Nielsen, ‘Future trends’.
8. Ibid.
9. Corley, ‘Consumer marketing’.
10. Alexander, ‘Decision-making authority’.
11. Godley and Williams, ‘The chicken’.
12. Twede, ‘History’; Cochoy, ‘A sociology’.
13. Cochoy and Grandclément-Chaffy, ‘Publicizing’; Grandclément, ‘Wheeling’.
14. Davies and Elliott, ‘The evolution’.
15. Grant, Manufacturer–retailer.
16. The leading confectionery manufacturers were part of various collective agreements from 1919 to 1956. CA 790/004874 ‘Agreements Between Leading Chocolate Manufacturers in U.K.’ (Documents from the Cadbury Archive, Mondelēz International, are prefixed with ‘CA’)
17. RPM data are from Government Board of Trade Papers, cited by Mercer, ‘Retailer-supplier’.
18. Pickering, Resale, 118.
19. Fitzgerald, Rowntree, 482.
20. RPM data are from Mercer, ‘Retailer-supplier’.
21. Mercer, ‘The making’.
22. Mercer, ‘Retailer-supplier,’ 132.
23. Morelli, ‘Constructing,’ 46.
24. Smith et al., Reshaping. 31.
25. Wilson and Thomson, The Making, 218.
26. Bailey, ‘Regulating’.
27. The Resale Price Bill received assent in July 1964, the court case was heard in the spring of 1967, and the judgement was delivered on 25 July 1967.
28. Cadbury, Industrial Challenge, 11.
29. Chandler et al., Scale, 246.
30. Smith et al., Reshaping, 80–81.
31. Astley and Zammuto, ‘Organization science’.
32. Lawrence and Suddaby, ‘Institutional work’.
33. Mercer, ‘The making’.
34. Fitzgerald, ‘Products’.
35. French, ‘Slowly’; Cadbury, Industrial Challenge, 38.
36. Cadbury, Industrial Challenge, 35.
37. CA 790/004589 C4a ‘Confidential Extracts from Document C.4. Special Discounts’.
38. CA 790/004874 Distribution, ‘Restricted Trade Practices 1935–1965’, 4.
39. CA 790/004589 C4a ‘Confidential Extracts from Document C.4. Special Discounts’.
40. Bradley, Cadbury’s, 184.
41. CA 503/003564 Advertising Dept. Annual Report 1957
42. Cadbury, Industrial Challenge, 25.
43. CA 503/003564 Advertising Dept. Annual Report 1961. CA 503/003564 Advertising Dept. Annual Report 1960, ‘Anti Galaxy Campaign’.
44. CA 503/003564 Advertising Dept. Annual Report 1962.
45. CA 790/004859, Price Cutting: Cadbury/Copy of Minute of the Marketing Group of the Bournville Sales Committee held on 16 September, 1958/Minute 509 – ‘Nescafé’.
46. Ibid.
47. CA 790/004859 ‘Resale Price Maintenance and the Grocer: Interim Report’ N.J. Newbold to All Marketing Group Members, 24 August 1964, 53.
48. The Grocer (1964) ‘The Trading Stamps Bill’ 25 January, 21.
49. The Times (1963) ‘Cadbury’s Stop Supplies to Tesco’ 12 June, 6.
50. CA 790/004859, Trading Stamps, ‘Gift Trading Stamps’, 7 November 1963, signed MHC.
51. The context is one of food price inflation. See: The Grocer (1967) ‘Minister Warns on Food Prices’ 20 May, 36.
52. The Times (1965) ‘Now Tesco Cut Prices of Chocolates’ 4 March, 7.
53. The Grocer (1965) ‘Confectioners’ Dilemma’, 13 March, 29.
54. The Grocer (1967) ‘Supermarkets would sell sweets at cost, RPM court told’ 3 June, 40; CA 790/004865 Court Proceedings Days 21–30, 26 1965 PR. No. 8 (E&W) Wednesday 24 May 1967 ‘In the Matter of the Resale Prices Act, 1964 and In the Matter of a Reference of Chocolate and Sugar Confectionery and Related Classes of Goods’, 4.
55. CA 790/004859, Price Cutting: Mackintosh/Departmental Correspondence/From: Mr A. Cook/To: Mr C.M. Watt 3 December 1963/Tesco.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.
58. Ibid. Letter to Alan Maynard of Maynards Ltd, from C.M. Watt [known as Michael] of Mackintosh & Sons Ltd, January 23 1964.
59. CA 790/004869 ‘Effects of In-Store Promotions in Supermarkets and Self-Service Groceries D.J.B., C.A. 2 May 1967’; ‘Appendix 2 ½lb C.D.M. Overwrap Promotion October 24th–December 25th’.
60. CA 790/004869 ‘Effects of In-Store Promotions in Supermarkets and Self-Service Groceries D.J.B., C.A. 2 May 1967’, 3.
61. CA 503/003564 Advertising Dept. Annual Report 1963.
62. CA 790/004873, 45. Display.
63. Ibid.
64. CA 790/004869 ‘Effects of In-Store Promotions in Supermarkets and Self-Service Groceries D.J.B., C.A. 2 May 1967’.
65. Crane, Sweet. The Grocer (1967) ‘Sweet Cuts by Grocers Analysed’ 9 September, 42.
66. Andrews and Friday, Fair trade. See their summary of arguments on 70–76. CA 790/004869 contains a letter from Philip Andrews of Nuffield College, Oxford, to D.J. Brown, Cadbury Brothers Ltd, dated 24 September 1966. Andrews was providing feedback on Cadbury’s draft policy statement prepared for the RPM court case.
67. Smith et al., Reshaping.
68. CA 790/004859 C4a ‘Confidential Extracts from Document C.4.’ Special Discounts, Appendix B, 11.
69. Usui, The Development.
70. CA 790/004874 Distribution, Restrictive Trade Practices 1935–65, 4.
71. CA 790/004874 ‘Trade Evidence’: Interview with Woolworths, 8 July, 1965 (memo dated 9 July, 1965) R.N. Wadsworth to D.J. Brown.
72. CA 790/004874, Trade Evidence, Resale Price Maintenance – Woolworths, 14 July, 1966. This is a record forwarded to Cadbury Board Director M.H. Cadbury of a meeting held between R.N. Wadsworth and R.L. Jackson (Cadbury), Mr Bedford (Director of Woolworths) and legal representatives for both firms.
73. For further details, see Crane, Sweet 87–88. The calculation of reduction included downsizing, diversification from confectionery trading and non-replacement of existing confectionery businesses.
74. Daily Mail (1967) ‘Cut-price sweets threat to shops’ 26 July, 7.
75. The Times (1967) ‘Big Five may “rescue” small sweet shops’ 26 July, 17.
76. CA 790/004871 Research ‘The Retail Distribution Pattern of Chocolate and Sugar Confectionery’, 6.
77. CA 790/004859 ‘Distributor’s Margins (Confectionery) 23 March 1961’, 34–37.
78. Ibid. 34.
79. Ibid. 34.
80. CA 915.3 006190 Press Cuttings: Price Cutting War Supermarkets, Evening Mail ‘Cigarette War Flares: 5d. Off’ 13.1.1967.
81. CA 790/004872 ‘Research: Results of a survey among members of the public into the abolition of resale price maintenance’.
82. Fitzgerald, Rowntree, 37.
83. CA 790/004869 ‘Diary of Events regarding the 1965 price cutting’.
84. CA 790/004871 ‘Letter to L.W. Young, Mars, from R.N. Wadsworth, Marketing Director’ 17 October 1966.
85. For further details, see Crane, Sweet.
86. CA 790/004869 ‘Resale Price Maintenance: A summary of the situation reached R.N.W.’ 7 November, 1966.
87. Vice, The strategy; Smith et al., Reshaping 75–98; Rowlinson, ‘Strategy’.
88. Child and Smith, ‘The Context’.
89. Cadbury, ‘The structure’.
90. Cadbury Schweppes Company Chairman, Adrian Cadbury, cf. Vice, The Strategy, 66.
91. The Grocer (1967) ‘Cadbury Separates Sales Force’ 1 July, 28.
92. Smith et al., Reshaping, 81.
93. CA 790/004869 Sales Research 7 November, 1966.
94. Crane, Sweet, 83.
95. The Grocer (1967) ‘Down Goes the Price of Sweets’ 29 July, 24.
96. CA 540/003591 Planned Public Relations, 12.
97. Ibid. 12.
98. The Times (1967) ‘Sweet makers at war as they prepare to drop RPM’ 11 July, 17.
99. CA 540/003591 Planned Public Relations, 8.
100. The Times (1967) ‘Cadbury’s sweets row’ 8 January, 17.
101. The Grocer (1973) ‘Facing the Buyers’ 28 July, 40. This was made explicit by Michael Groves, Marketing Director, Tesco. Groves argues that manufacturers should direct their marketing budget towards the fastest-growing section of the retail market, i.e. supermarkets.
102. The Grocer (1970) ‘Retailer price emphasis may force some companies out’ 30 May, 47.
103. Ibid. 50.
104. CA 540/003591 Planned Public Relations, 8.
105. The Grocer (1970) ‘Retailer price emphasis may force some companies out’ 30 May, 50.
106. Ibid.
107. The Grocer (1968) ‘Cadbury Drops Recommended Prices’ 27 April, 34.
108. The Grocer (1968) ‘Cadbury Puts Stamps on its Products’ 4 May, 36.
109. The Grocer (1968) ‘Cadbury Affair (Editorial)’ 11 May, 31.
110. Ibid.
111. The Grocer (1971) ‘Meeting the trade on route 284…’ 3 April, 77.
112. CA 790/004869 ‘The Effects of In-Store Promotions in Supermarkets and Self-Service Groceries: Cadbury Delivery Points’ D.J.B., C.A. 2 May 1967, 1.
113. Fernie et al., ‘Retail’.
114. The Grocer (1970) ‘Marketing’ 8 August, 56–58.
115. Ibid.
116. The Grocer (1970) ‘Marketing Clinic’ 24 January, 68–70. Peggs’s position is perhaps unsurprising, given Safeway’s movement to more centralised depot distribution in that period.
117. Ibid.
118. The Grocer (1974) ‘Marketing’ August 8, 56–58.
119. Ibid.
120. CA 540/003591 Planned Public Relations, 3, 8 and 17.
121. CA 540/003591 Planned Public Relations, 16.
122. Ibid.
123. The Grocer (1975) ‘IMP market still growing’ 22 March, 29.
124. The Grocer (1970) ‘Marketing’, 8 August, 58.
125. The Grocer (1971) ‘Multiples Use Pay for Space Grocery Units’, 16 October, 6.
126. Ibid.
127. Collantes, ‘Food’.
128. Godley and Williams, ‘The Chicken’; Godley, ‘The emergence’.
129. Eriksson et al., ‘Business’; Eriksson and Räsänen, ‘The bitter’.
130. Eriksson and Räsänen, ‘The bitter’.
131. Shaw et al., ‘The coming’.