When Kraft swooped on Cadbury back in 2009 there was trepidation at what this might mean for the chocolate company's workforce here.
There was great wailing, particularly in Britain, that these US upstarts little understood the particular culture in the company from its Quaker roots, and that any merger would simply plough the British and Irish business into the ground.
Kraft protested that it had no such plans but, with some cause, it had a hard time getting people to believe them.
In May 2010, just months after the £11.6 billion deal was completed, then enterprise minister Batt O'Keeffe met representatives of Kraft to discuss the future of its Irish business. At the time Cadbury/Kraft employed 1,130 people here in chocolate crumb and gum operations, and had only recently announced a €20 million expansion and upgrade of its Coolock plant.
The meeting took place as Kraft reviewed its entire enlarged operation across Europe in the wake of the takeover. The government was nervous, at best, with then foreign affairs minister Mary Coughlan’s earlier warning that it would be difficult to make the case for Cadbury’s sustainability in Ireland “in the context of the overproduction and oversupply that will arise from the takeover”.
Whether because of the meeting or otherwise, the axe did not fall in Ireland as many had expected.
Kraft focused its cuts elsewhere but it never really succeeded in integrating Cadbury. Its efforts were not helped by a dramatic rise in commodity costs that forced the group to increase prices.
Kraft became Mondelez and then split apart its grocery and its snacks businesses. But still the company has not managed to deliver on the vision of the 2010 merger.
Five years on, a company still looking to right size its business has returned to Ireland and decided it can no longer sustain the 900-plus jobs at three plants.
Even in their comments union officials seem resigned to the fate of those 220 workers who will lose their jobs with the closure of Tallaght and the cutbacks in Coolock and Rathmore in Kerry.
Mondelez’s difficulties are highlighted by the decision to axe one of its high-profile Snack brands. With big calls like that, it was always likely that smaller operations, like those in Ireland, would feel the heat.
