Cadbury's coming home! US owners confirmed all Dairy Milk bars will be made in the UK again after investing £75m in Bournville plant

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Cadbury will produce all of its Dairy Milk chocolate bars in the UK again after shifting some manufacturing to Poland

Cadbury will produce all of its Dairy Milk chocolate bars in the UK again after shifting some manufacturing to Poland.

Mondelez, its US owner, was criticised last year for breaking a key promise and making some of its signature chocolate bars outside of its historic factory in Bournville.

It raised fears that the link between Britain’s biggest chocolate brand and its old Quaker headquarters near Birmingham was being weakened.

But after investing £75million in its Bournville plant, Mondelez has promised to bring all Dairy Milk chocolate production home.

Glenn Caton, Mondelez president for Northern Europe, said: ‘We have been selling every single thing we can make from this factory for the last ten years.

‘When we had peaks of demand that we couldn’t supply we did have to offload a couple of bars temporarily.’

He said the investment in the factory was vital in securing the future of chocolate making at its historic home.

Cadbury was sold to US food giant Kraft for £11.5bn in 2010, which later spun it off into a different company called Mondelez along with Toblerone, Terry’s and a string of other confectionery brands.

After investing £75m in its Bournville plant, its US owner Mondelez has promised to bring all Dairy Milk chocolate production home. Above, the Bournville site, near Birmingham

The sell-off got off to a shaky start when, days after completing the deal, new boss Irene Rosenfeld announced the closure of Cadbury’s factory near Bristol and a factory in Poland opened, where Picnic and Crunchie chocolate bars are made.

But last year it was discovered that Cadbury was making its Dairy Milk Oreo bars and Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations in the country as well.

Earlier this year it was revealed some of its 95g Dairy Milk bars were also being made in Poland - where labour costs are a fraction of what they are in the UK.

However officials at Mondelez have now said this production will be brought back to the UK, adding that the same amount of chocolate is made in Bournville today as when Cadbury was bought.

‘There was no switch of production,’ said Mr Caton, 45. ‘We were selling everything we could possibly get off the lines.’

A Mondelez spokesman said: 'The £75m investment, and the four new lines we have built, means that the production of all Cadbury Dairy Milk products originally made in the UK, but temporarily made elsewhere, will be coming back home to Bournville. 

'Some Cadbury products that have always been made overseas are not currently  planned to be made in Bournville for technical and capacity reasons. 

'However, we are looking at bringing new products into Bournville all the time, for example we will start making Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo in the UK for the first time later this year.’

Mondelez has ploughed millions of pounds into new machinery at Bournville – allowing it to make more chocolate but also trim down the workforce.

There was an outcry over Cadbury's decision to drop the word Easter from Cadbury’s Easter Egg Hunt in partnership with the National Trust to encourage people of ‘all faiths and none’ to attend

Its newly-installed production lines shoot out millions of bars of chocolate with just a quarter of the staff.

Mondelez says while it has fewer workers, they are employed in better roles with more apprenticeships and career opportunities.

On a tour of the Bournville factory this week, Mr Caton was careful to underscore Cadbury’s commitment to Easter.

It came after an outcry over its decision to drop the word Easter from Cadbury’s Easter Egg Hunt in partnership with the National Trust to encourage people of ‘all faiths and none’ to attend.

But Mr Caton said the furore was a ‘storm in an eggcup’, adding: ‘We are incredibly proud of our role at Easter.

‘We are the market leader of chocolate at Easter and we have Easter prevalent on our products, on the packs and in our websites. We are very proud of our National Trust Partnership which has been going ten years.

‘We’re not ashamed of it, we are not hiding it and we are very proud of it. For me it’s a non-story.’