Sadness at Cadbury /Somerdale

Five hundred workers are loosing their jobs at a local chocolate factory in Keynsham, which is not far from Bristol. You may wonder why this has made the headlines. The Cadbury Somerdale site has been producing chocolate for some 70 years and over this period has been a major employer in the area. Unfortunately Cadbury's has suffered some bad publicity recently, there was a salmonella outbreak at one of their other factories and some labelling carried a printing error. This resulted in a lot of chocolate having to be recalled, and naturally this was very damaging for the company.
Anyone living in the UK and ex-pats will know dairy milk double choc, crunchie, curly wurly, turkish delight, and Creme Eggs all of which are currently made at this factory. Over the past four years about 30 of their factories have closed. The current move is to save costs and production is being transferred to factories near Birmingham and to Poland. I feel sorry for everyone who will loose their livelihood and for some this will affect several generations in the same family.
Apart from the chocolate I remember the factory site for a very different reason. This is a sign both my girls will recognise (probably Beccy more than Sam). The reason being we have battled many a tennis match at the tennis club which is one of the facilities on the site. The land will be worth a fortune if houses are built on it and would they keep the tennis club! We will have to wait and see what develops over the next year or so as 2009 is the date being given for final closure.

Somehow knowing some of my favourite chocolate is no longer going to be made in the UK, let alone locally doesn't somehow seem right. Remember my creme egg bag I think it will definitely become a collectible now!!

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October 4th 2006: Visiting