Growing its new and lucrative gum business in North America and pushing its own brands into added locations in convenience stores are key parts of Kraft's strategy on the acquisition, said the report.
Chambers (pictured), 52, [image-nocss] will oversee such Cadbury brands as Trident and Halls in the region, among other offerings within the newly combined company. He was previously president for North America at Cadbury.
According to the Cadbury website, Chambers joined Cadbury Schweppes in September 2005 as president and CEO of the Americas region. In September 2008, he assumed leadership of an important operational role as the head of the newly created Cadbury North America business.
He joined Cadbury from Remy Cointreau USA, where he was president and CEO. Prior to Remy Cointreau, he led three different organizations, enabling him to gain broad leadership experience in manufacturing, retailing, technology and branded businesses. He was CEO of the product development solutions provider Paxonix, president and CEO of Netgrocer.com and group president at Information Resources Inc. (IRI).
Before joining IRI, Chambers had a 17-year career at Nabisco Inc., with leadership roles in sales, marketing and IT, and culminating as president of the Refrigerated Foods operating unit.
The success of the high-profile merger will depend largely on how well Kraft manages to fold Cadbury into its existing businesses and its ability to retain key Cadbury employees. A Kraft Foods spokesperson told Dow Jones on Friday that 12 of Cadbury's top 17 executives have agreed to stay on.
Kraft's integration of Cadbury is being closely watched because the acquisition came about through a hostile deal, which some experts believe can make integrating businesses more difficult, the report said. Kraft faces the challenge of melding together two large global businesses and drawing sufficient cost savings and growth to justify its $19 billion acquisition of the U.K. chocolate maker.
Cadbury will not be a standalone unit under the new company and it is being regionally merged into Kraft's existing businesses. Chambers, for instance, will report to Kraft's current president of North America, Tony Vernon, said the report.
Some of Cadbury's most senior staff left soon after the merger was announced. In early February, the U.K. confectioner said Todd Stitzer was stepping down as chief executive officer. Others, however, are staying on in various positions. Marcos Grasso, another former Cadbury executive, was named president of Brazil for Kraft Foods on Friday. Kraft had previously named another Cadbury executive, Trevor Bond, president, markets, Kraft Foods Europe.
(Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage of the Kraft and Cadbury.)
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