Cadbury Makes Major Move.
Merges Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Snapple and Motts.
Focus Is 'Top-Line Growth.'

Cadbury will consolidate its three U.S. beverage businesses -- Dr Pepper/Seven Up (DPSU), Snapple Beverage Group and Mott's -- into one integrated company based in Dallas with additional major location in Northeast. Running it will be Gil Cassagne, who is now president of Cadbury's Americas Beverages; he currently oversees heads of separate DPSU and Snapple/Mott's units. But when change becomes effective on Dec. 15, separate units will cease to exist, and all operations will report into Cassagne. New name of company still uncertain, but one possibility said to be "Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages." Cadbury's Mexican beverage business will continue to operate separately, though it reports into Cassagne.

Rationale for change. Cassagne says focus is "top-line growth driven by efficiency and increased organizational capabilities." Interview. BD talks to Cassagne. Why is Cadbury making this change? Cassagne: "As the world around us has changed and continues to change, we must aggressively seize the opportunity these changes offer us to compete differently to win." Adds: "This final move to go to a fully integrated functional commercial operation affords us the opportunity to leverage the great strength of our brand portfolio, to maximize our operating configuration by streamlining business processes and to increase our organization capabilities." Plus: "Most important of those three areas is our ability now to unleash the potential of our organization against new opportunities while at the same time offering new developmental opportunities for our people."

Use of efficiency savings? Cassagne: "This affords us a tremendous opportunity to take a portion of these (savings) proceeds and re-invest them back against our brands to drive sustainable profitable growth."

Perspective. In essence, this change makes Cadbury's North America beverage structure similar to Coke's and Pepsi's. Up until now, DPSU, Snapple and Mott's have been run as separate companies. Now, they will all be brands of one North American company, just as Coke Classic, Minute Maid, Dasani, etc are all brands of Coke North America.

Details; people. McGrath: 'customers have been asking.' Mike McGrath, who currently runs DPSU, will become president of North American beverage sales for brands now under DPSU, Snapple and Mott's. McGrath tells BD: "I'm truly excited about the opportunity to put our great stable of brands together in a unified American beverages sales organization." Adds: "Frankly, the retailers and foodservice customers have been asking for this for years, and the competition is already there." Plus: "We'll certainly continue to respect the system needs for dedicated organizations, as we have in the past." Belsito: 'bringing focus.' Jack Belsito, who currently runs Snapple/Mott's, will become president of "Snapple Distributing Company." That is Cadbury's company-owned Snapple distribution system including Mr. Natural, etc. Belsito will be based in Northeast. Belsito tells BD: "We have long felt that this model could be expanded to our benefit. I'm looking forward to bringing focus to that opportunity."

Plus. Strategy. Jim Johnston becomes senior vp strategy; he is currently senior vp franchise/licensing. Johnston's new job encompasses strategic planning, franchise/ licensing and knowledge management. Marketing. Cadbury now has two highly-regarded senior marketing executives: Jim Trebilcock at DPSU and Michael Sands at Snapple/ Mott's. Cadbury will do search for North American beverage CMO, and those two will be candidates. During interim, they remain in current jobs. Sales. Structure for calls on bottlers/distributors will be finalized soon.