Cadbury's NZ profit slumps after closing Dunedin factory

The closure of Cadbury's Dunedin factory seems to have resulted in lower profits. Photo / Otago Daily Times

Cadbury's withdrawal from Dunedin last year has hit its bottom line, with revenue slumping more than $80 million and before tax profit more than halved to $31.1 million.

Mondelez-owned Cadbury pulled out of its profitable Dunedin plant last year, with the loss of more than 350 jobs, and also closed tourism attraction Cadbury World, when the site was sold for the new Dunedin hospital site.

Revenue for calendar 2018 was down 28.5 per cent from $296.6 million the year before to $211.8 million, before tax profit declined by 52.9 per cent, from $66.1 million to $31.1 million and the after tax loss for the year improved from $9.92 million in 207 to $6.28 million, for 2018.

Notes from the annual report of Mondelez New Zealand Investments make no mention of what is behind the $84.8 million revenue decline.

Requests were made to interview Mondelez New Zealand managing director Cara Liebrock, but she was not available for an interview.

Mondelez' external affairs manager Jake Hatton said "the vast majority of the revenue change is due to the factory closure, not sales revenue".

With the factory closure, the factory revenue is no longer counted in the New Zealand annual accounts, he said.

"There were a range of factors that impacted revenue last year including a number of one-time adjustments which included the factory closure, changes to customer inventory management, and the closure of the popular Cadbury World attraction, which was unfortunately out of our control," he said.

The New Zealand business continued to "perform strongly" and Mondelez was committed to investing in the New Zealand business and working closely" with thousands of local retail partners" to support growth.

The report noted that property, plant and equipment sold to other Mondelez subsidiaries during the year for a total $7.35 million, against no plant sales the previous year.

The "restructuring provision" for 2018 was $12.58 million, while in 2017 the post-employment benefits, including severance payments, was $18.34 million.

It appears post-employment benefits, including severance payments, totalled $19.51, with $1.18 million booked in 2017.

Employee remuneration in New Zealand fell from $35.8 million in 2017 to $13.6 million in
2018.