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The Story of Cadbury
Early Days - A One Man Business
Birmigham 1824
John Cadbury was one of ten children of Richard Tapper Cadbury, a prominent Quaker who had moved to Birmingham, England from the West Country in 1794.
In 1824, 22-year-old John Cadbury opened his first shop at 93 Bull Street, next to his father's drapery and silk business in the then fashionable part of Birmingham.
Apart from selling tea and coffee, John Cadbury sold hops, mustard and a new sideline - cocoa and drinking chocolate, which he prepared using a mortar and pestle.
Cocoa and drinking chocolate had been introduced into England in the 1650s but remained a luxury enjoyed by the elite of English society. Customers at John Cadbury's shop were amongst the most prosperous Birmingham families, the only ones who could afford the delicacy. Cocoa beans were imported from South and Central America and the West Indies.
Experimenting with his mortar and pestle, John Cadbury produced a range of cocoa and chocolate drinks, the latter with added sugar. The products were sold in blocks: customers scraped a little off into a cup or saucepan and added hot milk or water.
John Cadbury had a considerable flare for advertising and promotion. "John Cadbury is desirous of introducing to particular notice 'Cocoa Nibs', prepared by himself, an article affording a most nutritious beverage for breakfast," announced his first advertisement in the Birmingham Gazette in March 1824.
He soon established himself as one of the leading cocoa and drinking chocolate traders in Birmingham. The popularity and growing sales of John Cadbury's cocoa and drinking chocolate of 'superior quality' determined the future direction of the business.
In 1831, John Cadbury rented a small factory in Crooked Lane not far from his shop. He became a manufacturer of drinking chocolate and cocoa, laying the foundation for the Cadbury chocolate business.
These early cocoa and drinking chocolates were balanced with potato starch and sago flour to counter the high cocoa butter content, while other ingredients were added to give healthy properties.
By 1842, John Cadbury was selling sixteen lines of drinking chocolate and cocoa in cake and powder forms.
The Quaker Influence
The Cadbury family were prominent members of the Society of Friends or Quakers, one of the many nonconformist religious groups formed in the 17th century. Their strong beliefs carried into campaigns aimed at ending poverty and deprivation and many prominent Quaker-run businesses were part of reforms of social and industrial society in Victorian Britain.
John Cadbury's lifelong involvement with the Temperance Society influenced the direction of his business enterprise. By providing tea, coffee, cocoa and chocolate as an alternative to alcohol he felt he was helping to alleviate some of the alcolohol-related causes of poverty and deprivation amongst working people. He also incorporated some of these principles in his industrial relations philosophy. (See A Progressive Workplace)
Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham
John Cadbury
As the enterprise prospered, in 1847 John Cadbury rented a larger factory in Bridge Street, off Broad Street, in the centre of Birmingham and went into partnership with his brother Benjamin - trading as Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham.
The retail side of the business in Bull Street was passed to a nephew, Richard Cadbury Barrow in 1849. Barrow Stores, as it became, traded in Central Birmingham until the 1960s.
A major turning point for the cocoa and chocolate industry came in the mid-1850s, when taxes on imported cocoa beans were reduced by Prime Minister William Gladstone. The previously prohibitive chocolate products were now within the reach of the wider population.
Cadbury Brothers received their first Royal Warrant on February 4, 1854 as 'manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate to Queen Victoria.' The company continues to hold royal warrants of appointment.
During the 1850s business began to decline. The partnership between the first Cadbury brothers was dissolved in 1860, a difficult time in the company's history.
John Cadbury's sons Richard and George, who had joined the company in the 1850s, became the second Cadbury brothers to run the business when their father retired due to failing health in 1861.
John Cadbury devoted the rest of his life to civic and social work in Birmingham until his death in 1889.
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