History Of Cadburys 1920-2000
1920 CADBURY DAIRY MILK GOES PURPLE
Cadbury Dairy Milk started out in
pale mauve with red script, in a continental style 'parcel wrap’ at its launch
in 1905. The full Dairy Milk range became purple and gold in 1920.
1920 FLAKE IS LAUNCHED
The 'crumbliest flakiest chocolate’
was first developed in 1920. A canny Cadbury employee noticed that, when the
excess from chocolate moulds was drained off, it fell in a stream and created
flaky, folded chocolate.
1921 CADBURY SCRIPT LOGO FIRST APPEARS
The Cadbury script logo, based on the
signature of William Cadbury, appeared first on the transport fleet in 1921. It
was quite fussy to start with and has been simplified over the years. It wasn’t
until 1952 that it was used across major brands.
1928 THE 'GLASS AND A HALF' SYMBOL IS INTRODUCED
It was originally used in 1928 on
press and posters, but since then it’s been in TV ads and on wrapper designs,
where you can still see it to this day. First of all it was just on Cadbury
Dairy Milk, but it’s become the face of the company in recent years.
1928 INVESTMENT BEGINS IN CADBURY DAIRY MILK ADS
A huge success from day one, Cadbury
Dairy Milk first hit the shelves in 1905. But surprisingly, little money was
put into advertising it until 1928.
1929 CRUNCHIE IS LAUNCHED
A Fry’s product, Crunchie was
launched to rival an Australian bar called the Violet Crumble, which first
appeared in 1913.
1938 CADBURY ROSES ARE LAUNCHED
Cadbury Roses were introduced to
compete in the twist wrapped assortment market. Early designs incorporated a
sampler or embroidery rose design which was later replaced by a simpler rose.
1939 SECOND WORLD WAR BEGINS
During the War, rationing was
enforced and raw materials were in short supply so it was a question of making
do and concentrating on those products they were still able to produce.
1945 POST WAR EXPANSION
Once the war ended, the company
worked hard to restore business as usual. In due course of time, its efforts
were rewarded and sales climbed.
1947 MILK TRAY BAR IS LAUNCHED
Eight Milk Tray Chocolates, in a bar.
Imagine a box of Milk Tray Chocolates. Now imagine picking eight of the most
popular chocolates – keeping their distinctive shapes – and putting them in a
bar!
1948 FUDGE IS LAUNCHED
Launched in 1948, Fudge is most
famous for its 1980s and early 1990s advertising jingle 'A finger of fudge is
just enough to give your kids a treat’. The words were new, but the tune was
borrowed and based on a traditional English folk song, 'The Lincolnshire
Poacher’.
1955 FIRST CADBURY TV ADVERT
Cadbury’s ad for drinking chocolate
was one of 24 that were shown on ITV’s launch night. The advert was based on
the popular panel game 'Twenty Questions'.
1957 THE MAKING OF A 50S CADBURY TV ADVERT
Ever wondered how an early TV ad was made? We found this footage
in the Cadbury archive showing the making of an early Roses TV ad.
1958 LUCKY NUMBERS ARE LAUNCHED
In 1958 Cadbury launched a new
assortment of chewy sweets, some covered in chocolate and some not. These Lucky
Numbers each had an individual number on the wrapper, hence the name. The brand
was retired in 1968.
1960 SKIPPY IS LAUNCHED
The milk chocolate bar with a caramel
and wafer centre launched in 1960, with the slogan ‘It’s got a crunch in the
biscuit and a munch in the middle’. A classic 1960s TV ad for Skippy shows a
swinging London couple getting off their scooter and going into a trendy coffee
bar to pick up their Skippys.
1967 AZTEC BAR IS LAUNCHED
Made of milk chocolate, nougatine and
caramel, the Aztec made a big impact on its launch in 1967.
1967 TOFFEE BUTTONS ARE LAUNCHED
A button-shaped chocolate sweet with
toffee inside. Launched in 1967 and withdrawn in 1971. The packs featured
brightly coloured cowboys and Indians.
1969 CADBURY MERGES WITH SCHWEPPES
The merger happened after the new
Cadbury Chairman, Adrian Cadbury, was approached by his opposite number, Lord
Watkinson.
1970 A DECADE OF SALES GROWTH
Many Cadbury brands - Flake, Cadbury
Dairy Milk, Whole Nut and Fruit and Nut - saw vast increases in sales in the
1970s, partially due to hugely successful and memorable TV advertising
campaigns.
1970 CURLY WURLY IS LAUNCHED
Curly Wurly, made of chewy caramel covered
in milk chocolate, first appeared in 1970.
1970 OLD JAMAICA IS LAUNCHED
Old Jamaica was a special blend of
milk and plain chocolate with rum flavoured raisins. This Cadbury Classic
Selection bar is no longer made for the UK market, but you can still stock up
on Old Jamaica if you look around on the Internet.
1971 CREME EGG IS LAUNCHED
Cream-filled eggs first appeared back
in 1923. But the Cadbury Creme Egg we know and love today didn’t hit the
shelves until 1971.
1981 WISPA IS LAUNCHED
Launched nationally in 1983 after a
trial run in the North East of England, Wispa was available throughout the
1980s and 1990s and was re-born in 2007.
1985 BOOST COCONUT IS LAUNCHED
Milk chocolate covered bar with a
toasted coconut and caramel centre. A variant of the mighty Boost, this coconut
flavour was discontinued in 1994.
1987 TWIRL IS LAUNCHED
Twirl was launched in the UK in 1987.
The brand was developed by the Cadbury Ireland business using Flake technology.
It was originally launched in Ireland in 1985 as a single finger product and
became a two-finger product on its UK launch.
1989 INSPIRATIONS ARE LAUNCHED
Textured fruit flavoured centres
covered in milk, white and dark chocolate. Inspirations launched in 1989, in a
carton with sliding drawers. Initially highly successful, it was retired in
1998.
1990 CADBURY WORLD OPENS
Factory tours had always been popular
but it was impossible to run a factory smoothly if it had thousands of
visitors. In 1988 Cadbury began planning a visitor attraction to take the place
of the factory tours - Cadbury World.
1996 CADBURY FUSE IS LAUNCHED
Fuse exploded into the UK marketplace
on ‘Fuesday’ 24th September 1996. It was a chocolate bar with a difference –
instead of having a milk chocolate coating on the outside, the yummy ingredients
were suspended right the way through it.
Cadburys Products
Dairy Milk-Introduced in 1905, in an
attempt to take on Swiss chocolate makers in the field of milk chocolate via
the cunning means of putting even more milk in, Dairy Milk gradually took over
the British chocolate market, expanded around the world, and boosted the mass
appeal of chocolate. Or, if you’re a dark chocolate snob, destroyed forever the
idea of what proper chocolate should be in the public mind. Easter Eggs-Cadbury didn’t invent the idea
of chocolate Easter eggs – that originated in France and Germany in the early
19th Century – but they were among the first to make them using modern
manufacturing processes, first launching them in 1875, and establishing the
chocolate Easter egg as a tradition. Creme
Eggs-The now-ubiquitous
sugar-goop-filled ovoids didn’t launch in their original form until 1971,
although Cadbury had been making various forms of crème-filled egg things since
1923. They’re now the biggest-selling confectionary item in the UK during the
first few months of the year – we munch and slobber our way through 200 million
of them every year. Roses-Launched in 1938, Cadbury’s
miniature chocolate selection box is another classic brand – although in this
case, Cadbury didn’t get to the idea first. Roses’ arch-rival in the miniature
chocolate box market, Quality Street, was launched by Halifax-based sweetmakers
Mackintosh’s two years earlier in 1936. And, speaking for ourselves, we still
reckon Quality Street’s better. Fingers-Dating all the way back to 1897,
Cadbury Fingers remain as popular as ever. Biscuit. Chocolate coating. Simple.
Effective. Wispa-Discontinued in 2003, the bubbly Wispa bar
was revived in 2008 following an entirely authentic grassroots campaign –
including Facebook groups, and a banner being unveiled onstage during a stage
invasion at Iggy Pop’s Glastonbury 2007 show– that was absolutely nothing to do
with the Cadbury marketing department in any way whatsoever.
Flake-Created almost by accident – a
Cadbury employee noticed how excess chocolate spilling over from the moulds
fell in thin streams, creating the classic folded flake form – the Flake,
launched in 1920, saw its sales soar after it introduced the novel idea of
advertising it with a naked lady performing an erotic pantomime with the bar in
an overflowing bath. Fudge-A fairly basic bar, sure,
consisting of a slab of fudge coated in chocolate. But the old advertising
jingle – ‘a finger of fudge is just enough to give your kids a treat’, set to
the tune of old English folk song and numbers station favourite ‘The
Lincolnshire Poacher’ – is a maddening earworm. Milk
Tray-A box of chocolates – every
ninja-like secret agent’s favourite mysterious seduction technique. Curly Wurly-The Curly Wurly’s snaking strands
of chocolate coated caramel are much loved, notably for the sheer joy that can
be produced by getting Glaswegians to say the name out loud.
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