Porter's Five Forces "Cadbury"
Porter's Five Forces "Cadbury"
Porter's Five Forces "Cadbury"
“Cadbury”
The managers of a company should be systematically interested in knowing those forces that
influence the evolution of the company and especially those that can jeopardize its
competitive advantage and profitability. For this, managers should always know the dynamics
of the activity sector and the market in which they operate so that they can stay in the game
and remain competitive.
Bargaining power of buyers: Porter (2008) stated that where the product is a small fraction
of buyers’ costs or expenditures, buyers are usually less price sensitive.
Retail buyers are the group that has the most effect for Cadbury and other confectionery
producers. They are mainly large retailers like i.e. Tesco, Asda in UK. There is competition
for shelf space and threat of backward integration especially with brand only products. That is
a very important group, which is directly correlated with the revenue. It could have high
effect.
Bargaining power of suppliers: Group that has big impact on the final product, in terms of
quality and price. The main commodities used by Cadbury are cocoa, milk, and sugar. Any
change in the price of those commodities will affect directly the price of the product and the
profitability. Confectionery manufacturers are facing increasing cost pressures as Cocoa
prices hit their highest levels for 23 years due to fall in Cocoa production (BBC, 2008).
Cadbury is using commodity derivative contracts for cocoa and sugar. ‘Cadbury Cocoa
partnership’ is established to insure sustainable supply of Cocoa by supporting Cocoa farmers
in Ghana, India, Indonesia and Caribbean (Cadbury, 2008). Another way perhaps to
strengthen their position would be a backward integration, where they would acquire one or
more of their suppliers to ensure that they have control over the commodity price (Johnson et
al, 2008). Moderate effect.
Threat of a new entry: – as the confectionery market is dominated by well established
brands, as sated while analyzing the rivals, and they are Nestle, Mars & Wrigley, Cadbury,
Ferrero Rocher and Hershey, with 42% of the market (Cadbury, 2008) for a new company is
very difficult to enter the market, unless they come up with new interesting product,
something to go in line with the healthy lifestyle perhaps, as discussed above. However, it
will be difficult to take a considerable market share, as they would be competing against very
well established companies, with also established brand names, distribution channels and high
capital investment. Other barriers for new entrants are economies of scale and experience of
major operators in production and distribution (Johnson, et al 2008). On the other hand those
barriers might not be effective for a company that is diversifying, like Nestle, they used their
strong position of the confectionery market to enter the ice cream market (Reader, 2006). The
effect on Cadbury is low.
3|Page