The Strategic Dilemma of Trebor Bassett

The Strategic Dilemma of Trebor Bassett

John Taylor MD of Trebor Bassett (A sugar confectionary unit and one of the several units of Cadbury Schweppes (CS)).

John Sunderland MD of Cadbury Schweppes (CS) (a beverage and confectionary firm)

TBs financial performance (market volume and exploited scale economy) dropped. This made Taylor concerned. He had some ideas, but didn’t know how to put them into action in a way compatible with CS objectives and developmental approach.

Taylor felt creating a solution to resolve the poor performance of TB would have to involve the participation of the members of CS group office and TBs functional managers. But the group office wouldn’t buy the restructuring idea and TBs functional managers were too busy with other things, so Taylor wondered what strategic action to take.

Little History

Cadbury and Schweppes merged in 1969 and grew steadily, partly due to its people oriented culture and because it deep care for its employees. They created a friendly working environment, and they attracted and retained the very best people. CS saw their culture as a competitive advantage. They had 2 businesses – confectionary which is capital intensive and the beverage which is not, and CS objective was to grow internationally and get bigger.

The confectionary was mainly into chocolate and sugar, it didn’t have much competition, and the success keys were – extensive marketing expenditure, introducing innovative products and packaging, and establishing new distribution channels.

While the beverage was high competitive, infact the market was saturated. Its success keys were innovation and making products that met customers needs. They manufactures concentrates and syrups and sold to bottlers who made from them fruit drinks, adult soft drinks, etc.

CS was the no. 3 beverage company in the world after cocacola and pepsi, and its aim was to the largest most successful non-cola brand owner in the world. However currently share price lagged behind...