Cadbury has unveiled its latest campaign in its celebrated Cadbury Dairy Milk ‘Generosity’ brand platform, "There’s a Glass and a Half in Everyone".
Created in partnership with its global agency of record, VCCP, the campaign furthers Cadbury’s mission to inspire acts of generosity while highlighting how gifting chocolate can serve as a powerful gesture of kindness and connection.
"Memory" marks the seventh year of Cadbury’s generosity brand platform, a globally recognised campaign known for its heartfelt and emotional storytelling. The campaign continues to resonate with audiences by highlighting meaningful, relatable moments that celebrate the power of generosity whilst also challenging industry conventions by focusing on small, emotional moments rather than action-packed narratives.
The multi-award-winning campaign, which includes previous films such as "Mum’s Birthday", "Fence", "Bus" has garnered widespread recognition, including winning D&AD pencils, British Arrows and effectiveness awards from the IPA, Marketing Week and The Marketing Society.
At the heart of the campaign is a 60” second film that tells a moving story of a daughter and her father, directed by the acclaimed Steve Rogers, known for directing "Speakerphone" and "Garage" Cadbury films. It has been produced by Biscuit Filmworks.
Cadbury is committed to telling inclusive stories rooted in human truths, that are representative of the nation. To ensure the story’s accurate portrayal of people living with dementia, Cadbury consulted with specialists throughout the development of the film.
Cadbury has extended its partnership with Alzheimer’s Research UK, the UK’s leading dementia research charity, into 2025. The two organisations first joined together in 2024 to celebrate the role of Cadbury in the nation’s shared memories and to support the charity’s mission for a cure for dementia
InPost Newstrade, formerly Menzies Distribution, is making some changes to its carriage charge model following discussions with the Federation of Independent Retailers (the Fed).
In a letter to its UK customers which was being sent today (10), the news wholesaler has announced that it is to decrease the base charge to support retailers with lower sales.
For all other customers, the increase - which takes effect from April 5 - is being capped at £4.99 per store a week. In the Republic of Ireland, carriage charges are being frozen.
Commenting, the Fed’s National President Mo Razzaq said, “The Fed has been in discussion with InPost Newtrade about the difficulties our members are facing in such challenging financial times.
“The fact that the news wholesaler has listened – and more importantly – has acted on our members’ concerns is positive and we are pleased to see it taking steps to protect smaller news stores.
“That said, the Fed still does not support the carriage charge model, and we will continue to press for an alternative.
"We want our supply chain partners to get round the table to explore better ways of operating that mean publishers and wholesalers are not piling on more costs on hard-pressed retailers who can ill afford to pay them.”
In the letter to its customers, In Post Newstrade managing director Grant Jordan said, “Each year we review our Carriage Service Charge (CSC) template, which we use to recover a proportion of our costs.
"In 2025, we have taken the decision to decrease the base charge, actively supporting stores with lower sales within the category.
"We are also introducing a mechanism to make CSC more proportionate to category sales by adjusting the newspaper and magazine percentage sale contributions.
“We remain committed to working alongside our partners to support the long-term sustainability of the newspaper and magazine category, with service excellence and customer satisfaction always remaining our priority.”
This comes a few months after InPost acquired the remaining 70 per cent stake in Menzies Distribution Limited in an all-cash transaction valued at £60.4 million.
As reported in October last year, the third segment, MDS, responsible mainly for full load transport and warehousing was demerged from Menzies and is not part of the transaction. It will continue to be run by its existing management team and InPost will retain a 30 per cent shareholding.
The acquisition builds on the strong commercial growth that InPost has shown in the UK – tripling its revenue in the UK market over the last year – and will allow the business to fulfil several strategic objectives.
The retail industry is being “raided like a piggy bank”, chief executive of Marks & Spencer has stated, calling on the UK government to delay or ease planned tax and recycling charges.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Stuart Machin said that without pausing or staggering the changes to national insurance and business rates, which come into effect this April, UK retail would get smaller.
He also speculated on whether successive governments were guilty of a “snobbery” about retail.
Machin said a plan to lower the threshold at which employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) kick in should be phased in over two years.
Machin has stated previously too that changes to NICs would add £60m to the company’s costs which equated to about half a total rise in wage costs for M&S, including an increase in the legal minimum wage.
He wrote, "The sector already pays an effective tax rate of 55 per cent and the chancellor’s budget will add £7 billion of extra employment costs and an increased packaging levy to a sector working on margins of 3-5 per cent.
"While businesses like M&S will fight tooth and nail to hold down prices for customers, the British Retail Consortium and Institute of Grocery Distribution are already projecting food inflation of more than 4 per cent."
Machin further warned that UK food manufacturing and farming would contract, domestic products would go up in price and more food would be imported with potentially less stringent quality and environmental standards.
The retail boss also attacked the upcoming Deposit Return Scheme, which is slated to go ahead in 2027, calling it "nonsensical".
Extended producer responsibility (EPR), born as an environmental levy to fund recycling, would give retailers "a tax bill 20 times the current amount with £2 billion going straight to the Treasury as general taxation and no improvement to recycling".
"Retail is being raided like a piggy bank and it’s unacceptable," he wrote.
Machin is calling on the government to delay the increase in EPR fees and, more broadly, pause and review all Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) circularity recycling schemes.
"They have been poorly planned and evidence to date shows that they are highly costly and nigh on impossible to operate," he pointed out.
" Rethink the approach to business rates. We need a proper review of business taxation facing retailers, not a tweak that redistributes funds within the sector.
"The £500,000 threshold hits high street stores, which I know the government did not foresee, so take those shops out of it.
"Ensure the Defra minister works with the sector, not against it. Co-create a food strategy focused on growing British food production, push on with a veterinary agreement to help smooth the impact of Brexit, and think again on inheritance tax.
"These would be the right decisions for the environment and welfare, too," he stated.
Pernod Ricard is exploring a sale of its champagne brand G.H. Mumm, Reuters reported citing five sources familiar with the matter, as the company looks to focus on premium labels in its portfolio.
The French spirits giant behind Absolut Vodka and Jameson Irish whiskey is working with investment bank Rothschild & Co on the possible divestiture, that could attract interest from other spirits and beverage companies, the sources said.
The brand, a top French champagne house, is unlikely to be sold for less than three times its annual sales of €200 million (£166m), one of the people said. The company has been selective in who it sells assets to and a sale may not happen, the person cautioned. The sources were speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is not public.
“Pernod Ricard regularly assesses and evaluates its strategic opportunities and is continuously exploring options, including divestments or the streamlining" of businesses, the company said in a statement.
"This is a usual process in line with management’s mission of delivering value to shareholders, employees, clients and stakeholders." It added no decision about any particular action had been taken.
Rothschild declined to comment.
A sale of Mumm should it go ahead would be the latest shift towards a portfolio more focused on spirits. Last year, Pernod divested a large portfolio of wine brands. Pernod Ricard also owns the champagne brand Perrier-Jouet which is not part of the talks.
The drinks group cut its 2025 outlook on Thursday, citing challenging market conditions in the United States and China. It is now expecting a low single digit decline in organic net sales for the full 2025 year.
Its finance chief Helene de Tissot also said that tariffs imposed by China and the United States could deal an estimated £200m blow to Pernod Ricard's business annually.
China has already imposed temporary tariffs on European brandy imports, hurting Pernod's sales of its Martell cognac brand, in retaliation for punitive duties on China-made electric vehicles into the European Union.
The second-largest Western spirits maker faces the threat of US tariffs on Mexico, Canada and the European Union, which would affect products ranging from Irish and Canadian whiskies like Jameson to tequila and agave brands like Codigo 1530.
Pernod acquired G.H.Mumm in 2005. It was founded in 1827 in the Champagne region of the country and launched Mumm Napa in 1979 to make sparkling wines in California.
Mumm is known for its motto "Only the Best" and its Cordon Rouge red ribbon label.
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 United States, the producers association said.
"Potentially dangerous" meat could appear on UK store shelves if the government does not adequately fund food security checks at Dover port, the Conservatives have warned.
Criticising the government in a heated back-and-forth in the Commons, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins accused that the government of spending “more than the entire Defra budget to surrender the Chagos Islands”.
Atkins hit out at the Government for “taxing British farming families for dying, slashing winter fuel payments for rural pensioners, and hiking taxes on rural businesses”.
“The head of port health at Dover warned the select committee this week that if funding is not secured within seven weeks, then food security checks at the border will be stopped.
“This will mean unchecked and potentially dangerous meat appearing on supermarket shelves and in restaurants, at a time when foot-and-mouth disease is in Germany. When will the Secretary of State protect out borders and confirm this funding?”
Responding to her queries, environment secretary Steve Reed said, “The NFU and other interested parties have quite rightly raised their concerns about the situation with foot and mouth that was discovered in Germany.
“We are relieved that there has not been a further spread of that outbreak, but we are taking all appropriate measures at the border to ensure that this country remains safe in terms of biosecurity, and we will continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate action, to ensure there can be no repeat of what happened around 20 years ago when foot-and-mouth outbreak in this country devastated farming and cost the economy a total of £14 billion.”
Atkins further asked Reed to clarify when will he confirm this funding.
She said, "Compare this relaxed approach with the Prime Minister’s seeming desperation to pay more than the entire Defra budget to surrender the Chagos Islands.
“Now, does (Mr Reed) really support taxing British farming families for dying, slashing winter fuel payments for rural pensioners, and hiking taxes on rural businesses to pay £9 billion to a foreign government on some dodgy legal advice from Labour lawyers?”
Environment minister Daniel Zeichner meanwhile told MPs the Government is aware of challenges at Dover.
Zeichner said, “The issues at Dover are significant, they’ve been long running. The funding was not resolved ahead of the general election, it is an ongoing discussion.
“We are very aware of the challenges that are faced, we are on it, and we will make sure that we are talking to the Dover Port Health Authority.”
Almost 10,000 counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes and other tobacco and nicotine-based products have been seized following a series of visits to retail premises by Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team.
As reported by the council, the raids, carried out on Jan 21, were part of Operation CeCe, a national initiative to tackle the sale and supply of illegal tobacco products.
Officers were accompanied by specialist tobacco detection dogs, which can sniff out contraband in concealments within till points or hidden in storerooms.
Premises involved included off-licences, convenience stores, food retailers and barbers in Banbury, Kidlington and Oxford, the council stated.
The operation resulted in the seizure of 9,340 illegal cigarettes, 700g of counterfeit hand rolling tobacco, 180 unit packs of non-compliant nicotine pouches and 42 disposable electronic cigarettes, or vapes, with a capacity of nicotine containing liquid nine times the maximum allowed.
The total street value of the haul was approximately £5,000.
Councillor Dr Nathan Ley, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health, Inequalities and Community Safety: “Our trading standards team, working in partnership with other agencies, will continue to crack down on the sale of these illegal products and cause the maximum disruption possible to criminal networks.
“People can help us to stamp out illegal tobacco and create a healthier and safer county by being vigilant and reporting any suspicious activity using the illegal tobacco hotline.”
Other issues detected were:
Two premises in breach of their licensing conditions.
One premises with a concealment operated by electromagnets, although no illegal product was contained within it.
Four premises with tobacco products on open display, whereas they must be out of sight of customers.
Two premises with evidence of staff sleeping or living in storerooms, which was referred to other agencies.
Investigations are ongoing, with premises facing potential criminal prosecution, licence reviews and additional sanctions, including financial penalties.
Elsewhere in Clifton, City of York Council and police officers visited a business last week, where nearly £5,000 of noncompliant vapes and illicit tobacco was found and seized.
The illegal items found and taken have an estimated retail value of £4,941.25, including 177 noncompliant vapes with a retail value of £2,124, 2,250 counterfeit and illicit cigarettes valued at £731 an d1,450g of counterfeit and illicit hand rolling tobacco valued at £2,086.
Cllr Jenny Kent, Executive Member with portfolio for Trading Standards at City of York Council, said, "Tobacco kills hundreds of people in York every year, and the illicit market in tobacco and vapes makes harmful products cheaper and more easily available, especially to those below the legal age limit.
“Illicit vapes are becoming much more prevalent and are partly responsible for the rise in young people vaping – our public health advice is that while we support e-cigarettes as effective quit aids for adults to stop smoking, people who don’t smoke shouldn’t vape."
“This is why it is so important that you report concerns. Information from members of the public, investigation, and action by Council and police officers is essential to protect public health and enforce proper regulations.”