Cadbury World 2013: Mixing Business with Pleasure

It’s that time of year again when the Business Studies department make the 8 hour round trip to Cadbury World, Birmingham with our Year 10 Business Studies students.

The day started at 6am with 41 very excited students expecting to see something like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Incisive questions like “ Do we have to lick the walls?” and “Can you eat the grass?” were asked.

On our arrival, the students were pleasantly surprised by the huge factory building and its surroundings. Suddenly the history we have learned in Business, of how Cadbury came to Bournville and how George Cadbury looked after his employees with nice houses and recreational areas came alive.

Our arrival at the main attraction of the factory tour increased the excitement amongst students as we started to collect bars of chocolate, which were very quickly polished off. Three bars and and two cups of melted chocolate later and one student asked “please don’t give me any more chocolate!” Others believed they could eat more!

The factory tour showed students how the chocolate is packaged ready to be sent to the comany's customers, and how the factories at Bournville, Chirk and Marlbrook work together to produce Cadbury products. Half-way through the tour came the chocolate bean ride. It was time for Mr Leet and myself to ensure students were fully prepared for the ride of their lives with questions like “Do you like the dark?” and “How long did it take you to do your hair this morning? You might get a bit wet!”

Before lunch students were given the opportunity to wonder around the largest Cadbury shop in the world where they could buy plenty of Cadbury-branded merchandise as well as chocolate. A popular item is always the massive 1kg bar of chocolate brought for friends and family.

In the afternoon, students were given a lecture about how Cadbury chose their Bournville location, why the Somerdale factory in Bristol closed and a new factory opened in Poland. They also learned about how Cadbury is now owned by Mondelez International as of October last year and how the global company is organised across the continents in which they operate.

Overall a brilliant day was had by all and the journey home was a quiet one once the sugar highs had worn off.

Our visit to Cadbury World

On Friday 20^th April 2012, a group of year 9 and 10 students embarked on a 3 hour coach journey to Cadbury World in Bourneville, Birmingham.

Once we had arrived and checked in we got stuck into all that Cadbury World had to offer. We found at the door you got free chocolate and we went through a jungle where we learnt about the origin of the cocoa bean. As we enjoyed our free chocolate we found ourselves in a Victorian high-street, called Bull Street, where the first Cadbury’s tea shop was started in 1824.

We were then taken into a theatre where they showed us a film about how John Cadbury set up the company and then merged with his brother, and how the company expanded from there. After that we were taken into another theatre about how chocolate is made and processed; they also shook our seats to make it a lot more interesting and exciting!

Soon afterwards, we made our way into the Factory where we could see the chocolate being processed, from liquid chocolate into finished packaging. A worker showed us how the chocolate is moulded and we even got a little shot of liquid chocolate.

After this we had great fun going around a little track on these electric cars, which went through the stages of Cadburys. It was quite fun, but it was so slow…and embarrassing, Mr Leet’s photo wasn’t the best!

As we walked around the factory we saw different advertisements for Cadbury, including the robotic gorilla playing the drums, and were given more free chocolate bars.

After that we were allowed to enter the mother of all chocolate shops where you could buy a 1kg bar for just £4.99.

After lunch we went to the Essence exhibition where we learnt about how John Cadbury and his brother discovered the glass and a half of milk, we then entered a chocolate bar, which was amazing, we got to make our own chocolate concoction and eat it, it was delicious!

After the fun of making our own chocolate concoction we had a seminar where we learnt about the takeover of Cadbury by Kraft and the affects this had on the business.  We also learnt about reasons for John Cadbury choosing Bourneville for his factory and who the stakeholders of Cadbury are.

Overall we had a fantastic day at Cadbury World, we learnt about how the business was run and how Kraft took it over, we also learnt about the history of Cadbury and how it has changed ownership over the years. It was very worthwhile going to Cadbury and I enjoyed the day out.

By Rachael Holland, Adam Shalders, Ryan Dunkley and Reece Benson