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Cadbury loses trusted brand status

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Mon, 28 Jun 2010 1:10p.m.

Long-time title holder Cadbury fell to 36th equal place on the trusted brand list

Long-time title holder Cadbury fell to 36th equal place on the trusted brand list

Confectionary giant Cadbury has fallen from grace after six years as New Zealand's most trusted brand, making way for food producer Wattie's to claim the title.

Wattie's, makers of a wide range of pantry staples, beat 132 brands to win the award in the sixth annual most trusted survey, Reader's Digest New Zealand reported.

Long-time title holder Cadbury fell to 36th equal place after widespread criticism over its use of palm oil.

The firm briefly replaced cocoa butter with palm oil last year as a cost-cutting measure.

Palm oil production has been blamed for the rapid destruction of rainforest habitats and remained the single greatest threat to the existence of orangutans, and many other Southeast Asian wildlife species.

Automobile giant Toyota came in second place and won the automobile category, while Sony came in third and won both the electronics and computer categories.

Whittaker's, a New Zealand chocolate company, debuted on the list at number five.

The 2010 Reader's Digest Trust Survey was based on a representative sample of 500 people aged 18 years and over.

NZPA

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Comments

28 Jun 2010 05:00p.m.

Olivia wrote:

Cadbury-world is just boring now. All that's left are the hollow-eggs (I think). Cadburys used to be awesome for Dunedin, but it's not anymore and it's their own fault.

28 Jun 2010 04:26p.m.

Blair wrote:

Haha serves them right. I can't believe Cadbury actually thought they would get away with moving production to Australia, putting palm oil in the chocolate, shrinking the size of the blocks and replacing the Creme Eggs with those dreadful UK Creme Eggs. Good to see Whittakers at number 5, their NZ made Caramel block is really nice and certainly worth trying.

28 Jun 2010 03:27p.m.

Jeff wrote:

Cadbury is just plain awful, now owned by money hungry American 'Kraft'. I support Whittaker's, a good honest Kiwi family-owned operation that DOESN'T skimp on quality.

28 Jun 2010 03:12p.m.

Ryan wrote:

KP, sounds like they should be handling Cadbury's PR - if they are not already. I think it was more than just the palm oil thing though - they also tried to sneak in the reduced sizes with the repackaging, the change of ownership to a company with a bit of a bad rep, as well as the change in the cream eggs. These aren't changes that most other companies wouldn't do, but if you're trying to be the "most trusted" - then doing what most other companies would do isn't good enough.

28 Jun 2010 01:57p.m.

KP wrote:

Cadbury listened to its consumers & does so very much for the world that not everyone gets to see.. With Cadbury yes trial & error with the Palm oil situation & in saying that it was sourced sustainably so no destruction to the rain forest at all. They listened & changed it back to show that they DO care about what consumers think. What everyone doesnt know is that Palm oil is in 90+% of everything from food to beauty products the list is huge, Give Cadbury a break & move on they are a brilliant company & do so very much worldwide.. I will always support a company that is so dedicated & passionate about its products.. Nothing but a glass & a half of happiness!!

28 Jun 2010 01:25p.m.

Judy wrote:

Serves Cadbury right. I will no longer buy any of their products which is difficult because they own a lot of brands. However, I think you're wrong about them only "briefly" substituting palm oil. If you double check I think you will find that they very quickly changed Dairy Milk products back to the original recipe but that they continue to use palm oil in some of their others. While I'm not happy about rain forest destruction, the thing that annoyed me most was that they wrecked a a really good product and didn't seem in the least bit interested about the opinions of their customers. It was just sleaze.