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Cadbury Hershey's

Chocolate wars as Hershey bans British Cadbury from the US

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By Noel Young, Correspondent

February 18, 2015 | 5 min read

A bid to ban British-made Cadbury’s chocolate from sale in the US has started a mini trade war which one retailer likened to a new version of the Boston Tea Party.

Brit chocolate on the right

The description comes from Dennis Lane who runs a 7-Eleven convenience store in Quincy near Boston.

It started last year when Hershey which acquired Cadbury’s US operations in the 1980s sued two importers to block British-made Cadbury chocolate bars and some other British sweets from being shipped to the United States.

The Cadbury British operation was taken over by US food giant Kraft in 2010.

Hershey makes and markets its own version of Cadburys in the US - and fans of the British chocolate say it is VERY different. “Much more waxy,” said one.

Now many Cadbury devotees are boycotting Hershey in retaliation.

“I’m mad as hell,” said Lane, who threatened to ban Hershey products from his store. “I’ve got two choices: Allow Hershey to bully me as a retailer, or take a stand and send a message.”

In Methuen, a grandfather forbade his granddaughters from getting Twizzlers — they’re made by Hershey — during a trip to the movies. And in Cambridge, the owner of Cardullo’s Gourmet Shoppe, Donez Cardullo, signed online protests as she quickly stockpiled hundreds of Flakes, Crunchies, and other Cadbury treats before the long drought.

“I can’t even wrap my head around what it’s going to mean not carrying British Cadbury,” Cardullo said.

You’ll still be able, says the Boston Globe, to buy Cadbury-brand chocolates that Hershey makes for US customers with a different — and, Brits say, inferior — formula.

Hershey moved after it noticed the British versions were starting to show up on the shelves of bigger US retailers, and not just the specialty shops, as demand for the imported chocolates grew.

Irish and British expatriates are signing online petitions via email and Facebook, including one on MoveOn.org with more than 35,000 signatures, protesting Hershey’s tactics.

There’s no sign that Hershey is going to back down.

Hershey spokesman Jeff Beckman said the company has worked behind the scenes for years to stop trademark infringements. Hershey took the next step of going to court with lawsuits against Posh Nosh Imports of New Jersey and California’s LBB Imports, he said, after the British-made sweets started showing up in mainstream stores.

He said Hershey uses the recipe developed by the family in the 1970s. The only significant difference, Beckman said, is that the US bars don’t contain vegetable oils because of the variation in US standards for milk chocolate.

Also, say the British fans, the US chocolate lists sugar as the Number one ingredient; in Britain its milk.

Lane wrote an e-mail to Hershey’s John Bilbrey on Feb. 8, telling the chief executive he wouldn’t buy another Hershey product for his 7-Eleven store.

Lane’s Adams Street shop caters to the big Irish diaspora in Milton and Quincy. Lane said he’ll follow through on his threat if he doesn’t get a reasonable explanation for the blockade.

Haverhill resident Mel Ball said he refused to buy Twizzlers after his two granddaughters requested them on a recent trip to Methuen to see the movie “Paddington” — they ate Mars-made M&Ms instead. The UK native said he’s upset with Hershey’s heavy-handed enforcement: “I have recommended to anybody that has Hershey products in their home to send them back to Hershey and ask for a refund.”

For Wendy MacMillan the chocolate is a connection to her home country of England, which she left in 1984 to move to the Boston area.

“I’ll never buy a Hershey product again if they continue with this ban,” MacMillan said, “and I think that’s true of a lot of people.”

Kiki’s general manager, Sophia Aiello, said she learned the bad news about three weeks ago. There are still plenty of UK-made Cadbury bars in stock but she expects they’ll be gone as soon as word gets out to her customers.

“Maybe boycotting Hershey’s is an option in the future,” Aiello said. “We have issues such as illegal narcotics and human trafficking that are far more important. Instead, we’re focusing on ‘illegal’ chocolates coming into the country.”

Cindy Quinn, co-owner of the Greenhills Irish Bakery in Dorchester, said the importer she uses is ending her supply, too.

“I’m sure that Hershey’s is cracking down with every importer,” Quinn said. But “regular old Hershey’s is not going to cut it with my customers.”

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