Retailers caution Cadbury over too rapid return of Dairy Milk products

Retailers have hit out at Cadbury for rushing to get products back on shelves and failing to reassure consumers through its marketing. The confectionery giant was forced to pull more than a million chocolate bars under its Dairy Milk brand off

Retailers have hit out at Cadbury for rushing to get products back on shelves and failing to reassure consumers through its marketing. The confectionery giant was forced to pull more than a million chocolate bars under its Dairy Milk brand off shelves earlier this summer.

The confectionery giant announced the products, which include the flagship Dairy Milk bars, Freddo and a range of 250g Dairy Milk variants, would be back in cash and carries from the start of August, but some retailers believe that it is too early and that the company has yet to deal with all of the issues surrounding the scare.

One industry insider says that Cadbury is not behaving “as professionally as you would expect”, and says that the company needs to be “better organised” about returning product to shelves in order to coincide with the return of its Coronation Street sponsorship and a new marketing campaign.

Another retail source believes that Cadbury should “thank” consumers for waiting for the company to sort itself out. She says: “I would rather see it saying thank you than sorry at this point, but it has not indicated what it is planning to do yet.” But she adds that the company needs to act quickly otherwise it will miss out on Christmas sales: “Christmas products will be going on shelves in four to six weeks, and Cadbury is a huge part of that because too much shelf space depends on it.”

The recall has led to the delay of several product launches that were planned for the summer, although a dark-chocolate Flake is expected to hit shelves later this month (MW July 13). It is understood that the launch of Cadbury’s Melts will also go ahead, but it is unclear when it will be on sale (MW June 29).