Skip to content
Search
AI Powered
Latest Stories

Cadbury Marketing Boss Leaves after 12 years

Cadbury Marketing Boss Leaves after 12 years
Benazir Barlet-Batada

Benazir Barlet-Batada, senior marketing director of confectionery UK and Ireland at Mondelēz International, has left her role after more than a decade working on the Cadbury brand.

Barlet-Batada joined the food business 18 years ago, working her way up through roles including senior brand manager of Cadbury Dairy Milk, and both brand equity lead and marketing activation director for Cadbury UK and Ireland. She worked on the Cadbury brand for a total of 12 years, taking on the senior marketing director role in January 2021.


Writing on LinkedIn, Barlet-Batada said she would be taking a “break” from full-time work to spend time with her family and pursue her personal passions.

“It’s been a genuine pleasure and privilege to work on the Cadbury brand for the last 12 years. It’s been a very special time and I leave with so very many great memories and stories. As many people have said before me, if you cut me open, I will always bleed purple,” she wrote.

In October, Marketing Week columnist and Mini MBA founder Mark Ritson hailed Barlet-Batada and the “exceptional women who run marketing for Cadbury” as evidence that marketers who have long tenures at brands are able to deliver better marketing. The Cadbury Dairy Milk "Glass and a half in everyone" campaign won the IPA grand prix for best advertising earlier this year.

More for you

Surge recorded in whole food sales

iStock image

Surge recorded in whole food sales

Brits are increasingly leaning towards cooking from scratch and are ditching ultra processed food, thus embracing a much simpler approach to their diet, a recent report has stated.
According to a recent report from John Lewis Partnership released on Friday (17), supermarket Waitrose has reported that it’s back to basics for many in 2025 due to a growing awareness around ultra processed foods, with many turning away from low-fat, highly processed products in favour of less-processed, whole food ingredients.
Whole milk and full-fat Greek yogurt sales are up 11 per cent and 21 per cent compared to skimmed milk and Greek style yoghurt a year ago.
Block butter sales are up by +20 per cent as compared to dairy spreads while brown rice is seeing +7 per cent more sales as compared to white rice.
The report adds that sourdough bread sales are up by +20 per cent as compared to white bread while full fat Greek yoghurt recorded +21 per cent more sales than Greek style yoghurt.
Over the past 30 days, searches on Waitrose website whole food searches soared with ‘full fat milk’ and ‘full fat yoghurt’ skyrocketing 417 per cent and 233 per cent.
The shfit reflects the wider growing awareness of effects of ultra-processed foods, thanks in no small part to Dr Chris van Tulleken’s bestselling book Ultra-Processed People and its continued momentum in 2024 and into 2025.
His eye-opening, rigorously researched account of ultra-processed foods and their effect on our health turned many people towards cooking from scratch, with unprocessed or minimally processed ingredients.

Maddy Wilson, Director of Waitrose Own Brand comments, “There’s been a lot of bad press around so-called ‘healthy’ products which aren’t nutritious and don’t taste great, however the growing awareness of ultra processed food in our diets has seen many customers seeking the basics and embracing a much simpler approach to their diet.”

Waitrose Food & Drink report released last year highlighted that 54 per cent of those surveyed proactively avoid processed foods.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hinckley c-store ordered to close down

Image from Leicestershire County Council

Hinckley c-store ordered to close down

A convenience store in Hinckley, which sold illegal cigarettes to undercover Trading Standards officers on eight occasions and had more than 1,800 packets of illegal tobacco seized during four enforcement visits, has been closed down for three months.

As informed by Leicestershire County Council, Easy Shop in Regent Street has been ordered to remain closed until April 15 by Leicester Magistrates Court, following a joint operation by Leicestershire County Council’s Trading Standards service and Leicestershire Police. The orders were issues last week.

Keep ReadingShow less
Peterborough shop “closed” to tackle organised crime

Image from Cambridgeshire Constabulary

Peterborough shop “closed” to tackle organised crime

A city centre convenience store in Cambridgeshire has been closed down after police found "illicit" items including Viagra tablets, illegal tobacco and more than £14,000 in cash from the premises.

About 683,400 cigarettes, 37.45kg of hand rolling tobacco, and 35 cigars were seized by the police from International Food Centre in Lincoln Road in Peterborough late last year. The closure order was served on the shop and flat above on Dec 31following an application to Huntingdon Magistrates' Court.

Keep ReadingShow less
Champagne being poured into champagne glasses
Photo: iStock

Champagne shipments hit by gloomy consumer mood in 2024, producers say

French champagne shipments fell by nearly 10 per cent last year as economic and political uncertainties hit consumers' appetite for the sparkling wine in key markets such as France and the US, the producers association said.

Producers had called in July for a cut in the number of grapes harvested this year after sales fell more than 15 per cent in the first half of 2024. Full year shipments were down 9.2 per cent from 2023 at 271.4 million bottles, the Comite Champagne (Champagne Committee) said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Booker Group donates over 20 million meals to those in need
Photo by DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images

Booker Group donates over 20 million meals to those in need

UK’s leading food and drink wholesaler Booker has today (20) announced it has donated the equivalent of over 20 million meals to charities and local communities as part of its ongoing partnership with FareShare and Olio.

Donations are delivered or collected direct from Booker’s 190 branches, 11 distribution depots and Best Food Logistics business. In 2024 alone, Booker donated over seven million meals to FareShare charities in local communities.

Keep ReadingShow less