Who Owns Cadbury?

Cadbury is owned by Mondelez International, the American group that was formerly Kraft. Companies House still records the controller under the Kraft name — and the entry changed as recently as 5 August 2026, when Kraft Foods Investment Holdings UK Limited replaced another Kraft company as controller of Cadbury UK Limited (00155256), a company incorporated in 1919. The 2010 takeover was contested and its promises were not kept. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns the Cadburys brand?

The historic company is CADBURY UK LIMITED (00155256), incorporated 19 May 1919 and registered at Bournville, Birmingham — the model village the Cadbury family built for its workers, and still the registered office more than a century later.

Its person with significant control is Kraft Foods Investment Holdings UK Limited, at 75% or more of shares and votes with the right to appoint and remove directors, notified 5 August 2026. The previous controller, Kraft Foods UK IP & Production Holdings Limited, ceased on the same day.

One Kraft entity replacing another on a single day is an internal reorganisation, not a sale. Cadbury has not changed hands; the group has moved it between holding companies.

Parent company and ultimate owner

The ultimate owner is Mondelez International, listed on NASDAQ and widely held with no controlling shareholder. Kraft Foods split in 2012: the North American grocery business kept the Kraft name, and the global snacks business — which held Cadbury — became Mondelez.

The UK register did not follow. Fourteen years later, Cadbury’s controllers are still named after a company that no longer owns it in the form the name suggests. Anyone searching Companies House for “Mondelez” would not find Cadbury.

This site has now found the same lag at Channel 5, whose controller is still Viacom Camden Lock Limited three renames later. There is no requirement to rename a holding company when its parent rebrands, and groups routinely do not bother.

Brand owner vs operating company

Mondelez owns the trademark, the recipes and the profits. Bournville still makes chocolate, and the factory’s continuation was among the commitments made during the takeover — see below.

The register holds a second Cadbury company, CADBURY LIMITED (01293962, incorporated 1977), registered not in Birmingham but in Uxbridge. Two active companies, both called Cadbury, in different towns, in the same group. As everywhere on this site, the number is what identifies them.

When the ownership changed

Cadbury was founded in Birmingham in 1824 by John Cadbury, a Quaker whose family built Bournville as a response to industrial living conditions. It remained British and, for most of its life, family-influenced.

• 1919 — Cadbury UK Limited incorporated; the company merges with J.S. Fry & Sons.
• 1969 — merges with Schweppes to form Cadbury Schweppes.
• 2008 — the drinks business is demerged; Cadbury plc stands alone.
• 2010 — Kraft Foods acquires Cadbury for a reported £11.5bn after a hostile, four-month battle.
• 2012 — Kraft splits; Cadbury passes to Mondelez.
• 5 August 2026 — the registered controller changes to another Kraft-named holding company.

The 2010 takeover is the one that matters, and it did not end when the deal closed. Kraft had said it would keep open the Somerdale factory near Bristol, which Cadbury had planned to close; within days of completing, it announced the closure and moved production to Poland. The Takeover Panel criticised Kraft publicly, and the episode led directly to reform of the UK Takeover Code — tightening the rules on what a bidder may claim about its intentions and holding it to those statements afterwards.

So Cadbury’s sale changed British takeover law. That is a rare distinction, and it is the substantive answer to why the deal is still argued about.

The bid vehicle’s name is preserved elsewhere in the register as Chromium — an acquisition codename, in the pattern this site documents at Chelsea, Asda, Boots and Heathrow.

Related brands in the same group

Mondelez owns Cadbury, Dairy Milk, Wispa, Flake, Crunchie, Twirl, Green & Black’s, Maynards Bassetts, Oreo, Milka, Toblerone, Ritz and belVita.

Schweppes is no longer connected — the drinks business went its own way in 2008 and is now largely with Keurig Dr Pepper. The company called “Cadbury Schweppes” for four decades no longer exists in that form.

Cadbury is not connected to Nestlé, Mars, Lindt, Thorntons or Hotel Chocolat — the last now owned by Mars, and covered elsewhere on this site. In the United States, Cadbury chocolate is made under licence by Hershey, not by Mondelez, which is why American Cadbury tastes different: same brand, different maker, different recipe.

Sources and verification

Both company numbers, the 1919 incorporation, the Bournville registered office and both PSC entries with the 5 August 2026 date come from Companies House and can be checked directly.

The register names Kraft-branded UK holding companies and stops — Mondelez International is not named on any UK filing, and the connection rests on Mondelez’s own SEC reporting and corporate disclosures. The 2010 takeover terms, the Somerdale episode and the Takeover Panel’s criticism are matters of public record held by the Takeover Panel, not Companies House, which does not verify most filed information.