AyG
Crazy Mango Extraordinaire
Posts: 5,871 
Likes: 4,555
|
Post by AyG on Mar 16, 2021 6:44:35 GMT 7
Remember Thorntons chocolates? I remember as a teenager my father buying my mother boxes of their chocolates. They seemed oh-so-sophisticated. Only later was I to discover they're actually rather cheap ingredients, and not particularly pleasant.
Anyway, the company is over 100 years old - founded 1911. It was acquired by Ferrero in 2015. And now Ferrero is closing all Thorntons stores with consequent loss of jobs.
It seems wrong that foreign companies can buy up UK ones, then quickly close them down with impunity.
Doubtless it will increase the sales of Ferrero's foil covered crunchy dog poo, though.
|
|
rubl
Crazy Mango Extraordinaire
The wondering type
Posts: 23,596
Likes: 8,954
|
Post by rubl on Mar 16, 2021 12:16:53 GMT 7
That was in June 2015, the take-over that is. Seemed a 'saved by the bell" at the time. How things change in six years. "Ferrero and Thornton’s : the bitter sweet taste of M&A Ferrero’s bid for Thornton’s marks the end of just over one century of history, as yet another British chocolate household name will be swept up by a foreign group, following in the footsteps of Cadbury in 2009 and Rowntree in 1988. This will leave the relative newcomer Hotel Chocolat as the only significant specialised independent British owned chocolate manufacturer and retailer. ,,, There are only so many successive profit warnings a company can issue before it loses all credibility with its shareholders. Thornton was getting to that point, and the arrival of Ferrero in that troubled environment can be considered as the deus ex machina that will hopefully prevent Thornton’s from going into terminal decline. By the own admission of Thornton’s former Chairman Peter Thornton, grandson of the chocolate maker’s founder, without Ferrero’s offer “The decline in performance would have continued and I think the decline would have been fatal.” ..." www.psiegenthaler.com/2015/07/30/ferrero-and-thorntons-the-bitter-sweet-taste-of-ma/"Thorntons bought by Ferrero for £112m Italian company, best known for its nutty chocolates wrapped in gold foil, said it would keep the Thorntons brand and the company’s factory in Derbyshire" cwww.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/22/thorntons-bought-by-ferrero-rocher-for-112m-pounds |
|
smokie36
Vigilante
Posts: 15,662
Likes: 9,066
|
Post by smokie36 on Mar 16, 2021 13:43:45 GMT 7
Their chocolates are poo as well...a bit like the Ratners of the choco world of late sadly.
Small independent choco makers are the future....these huge firms make shitty everything.
|
|
AyG
Crazy Mango Extraordinaire
Posts: 5,871
Likes: 4,555
|
Post by AyG on Mar 20, 2021 16:38:16 GMT 7
|
|
rubl
Crazy Mango Extraordinaire
The wondering type
Posts: 23,596
Likes: 8,954
|
Post by rubl on Mar 20, 2021 16:46:45 GMT 7
^^|
A bit harsh, but true
"“You have to understand your position as a product or brand in this new consumer world,” says Hopkinson. “The problem is maintaining relevance … or you suddenly find that your consumer is the people aged 70-plus who still totter down the shops.”"
|
|
rott
Crazy Mango Extraordinaire
Posts: 3,754
Likes: 2,780
|
Post by rott on Mar 21, 2021 2:09:36 GMT 7
Well the customers departed the high street first so the businesses have to follow eventually. |
|
