KEY POINTS:
Todd Stitzer's main claim to fame is his jargon. As soon as he became chief executive of Cadbury Schweppes, commentators noted his fondness for management-speak with phrases such as "smart variety", "uniquely competitively advantaged" and "degrading its premiumness".
Four years on, nothing has changed. At last week's presentation,
he talked of the need for "double-hatting" and "more directive in executing".
"It's off-putting," said one investor. "You don't hear Bart Becht [chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser] talking about being 'more directive in executing'; he says 'execution'.
"When anyone speaks like that, it makes you think they do not know what they are talking about."
The comparison with Becht is a salutary one. He has made Reckitt one of the world's most admired consumer goods companies; Stitzer admits that Cadbury has failed to exploit its position as the world's biggest confectionery company.
He accepts that his four years at the helm have been marred by problems such as the salmonella contamination of millions of chocolate bars, accounting fraud in Nigeria and losses in Russia and China.
While Stitzer may not yet have learnt to speak Becht, last week's announcement was full of Reckitt-style language. Out would go the hundreds of sub-brands and range extensions that are distracting management and dividing its marketing spending; instead, it will focus on five core brands - Cadbury's, Halls, Green & Blacks, Trident and the Natural Confectionery Company.
Out go fuzzy management structures and bureaucratic layers; in comes a more streamlined structure - and 7500 job cuts. Out goes the proliferation of factories and locations; in come bigger, more efficient, plant and core growth markets.
It also confirmed plans to sell its US beverages business, maker of 7Up and Dr Pepper.
Cadbury Schweppes said last week that there were no plans to cut jobs at the company's two New Zealand plants, in Auckland and Dunedin.
The big question in the City of London is: can Stitzer deliver?
"The reorganisation shows that Cadbury has fully accepted what the market knew already - it has the best portfolio of brands in the business, but they have been grotesquely underexploited," said Rob Mann, food analyst at Collins Stewart.
In theory, Stitzer should have been a breath of fresh air at Cadbury. He was only the second chief executive from outside the Cadbury family - the present chairman, Sir John Sunderland, was the first - and, as an American, should have been less ruled by the Quaker roots and aura of benevolent capitalism which still permeates the company.
But 20 years of climbing the ladder before becoming chief executive - he joined Cadbury from its American corporate law firm in 1983 - seem to have completely inculcated its attitudes in him.
He is not of Quaker stock, but his father was a YMCA leader, and as a child he attended church twice each Sunday - once with his Catholic mother and then with his Methodist father.
Those who know him say he is very conscious of the Cadbury heritage.
A consultant who has worked with the company says that when a project is suggested, Stitzer and his team want to examine every aspect before they decide to go ahead.
In the six months or more it takes them to do that, the market moves on and the opportunity is lost.
"He needs to be 75 per cent confident of what he is doing, then do it," the consultant said.
"If it is wrong, he can pull back. That's what companies like Tesco [supermarkets] do, and that is why they're successful."
Stitzer needs to get it right this time - indeed, his fiercest critics say he will have to show he can deliver well before the 2011 end date for his "Fewer Faster Bigger Better" strategy.
His previous "Fuel for Growth" growth and margin targets were effectively abandoned after oil price rises and salmonella scares made it impossible to achieve them.
And corporate raiders are on his back. Nelson Peltz, famous for forcing improvements from Heinz, bought 3 per cent of Cadbury's shares in March and called on the company to separate beverages and confectionery - although Stitzer says it had already decided to do that.
Private equity firms are queuing to buy the US drinks business, and analysts believe that unless Stitzer produces results quickly, the confectionery company could be next on their list.
"He's done most of the nasty work a private equity company would need to do," said Mann.
"Firms would not want to go into a venerable city institution and sack everyone. But management have done that themselves."
Stitzer would not want to be remembered as the man who sold out one of Britain's corporate heroes. He clearly has empathy for the Cadbury brothers' heritage. They formed the business to sell tea, coffee and drinking chocolate as a way of discouraging consumption of alcohol.
In a speech to the Institute of Directors last year, Stitzer said:'We still passionately believe it is possible to pursue commercial goals and behave in line with values."
He pointed out that Cadbury was one of the few top 100 UK companies to have a main board committee overseeing corporate social responsibility.
He also lamented the poor reputation of business in the community, but said industry had only itself to blame, as it did not explain itself properly.
"We must declare that values have a central role in business," he said, "and that if you are passionate about human rights or you care about the environment, business is a good place to be."
Stitzer, 55, lives in Virginia Water, near London, with his wife, Marenda, but keeps a home in Connecticut, nearer his two children, both of whom returned to the US to go college.
He has had no truck with claims that food companies such as his are to blame for increased obesity, pointing out that sweet consumption has changed little in recent years.
Partial to the odd Crunchie bar, he runs for 40 minutes a day on a treadmill wherever he is in the world and plays tennis regularly - he gave lessons to help pay his way through college after his mother died. His challenge to is to get Cadbury as fit as he is.
TODD STITZER
Chief executive, Cadbury Schweppes
Born: March 10, 1952
Education: Springfield College, Massachusetts, and Harvard University
Career: 1978 associate attorney at New York law firm; 1983 assistant general counsel Cadbury Schweppes North America; 1997 chief executive, Dr Pepper/7Up; 2002 Cadbury Schweppes deputy chief executive; 2003 chief executive
Family: one son, one daughter
- OBSERVER
