In Latin America:

Darlings started exporting to latin america in the early 50s. Darlings only exported The Colonel's Cjoice, but for 10 years sales remained static. In the 60s Darlings tried to increase sales by exporting other boxed chocolates, but it was not successful.

The main problems are:

• high transport costs;

• poor agents;

• poor forwarding agents.

And recently, there was a problem with the consignment to Latin America. Their order for !000 000 Colonel’s Choice arrived 50 000 short. The reason was: that the ship was half unloaded in Buenos Aires due to a misunderstanding with the documents. So, Darlings could not reroute the goods by ship arriving in Rio on the 24^th December, because they would loose the pick of Christmas sales. The only thing they could do was to reroute the chocolates to Liverpool.

I suggest Darlings to cancel the agreement with this agent, because now, for Darlings this market is not profitable.

In Germany:

Darlings should work out a long-term, central strategy of exporting the goods.

Darlings should encourage long-term agreements, wider the range of export products, increase prices for the Colonel’s Choice. It can be sold at a premium price.

Long-term strategy: set up subsidiaries abroad, start producing products in Germany. This may reduce production costs, transport and labour costs.

First 50 year of Darlings

In 1933, the story of Darlings began. A retired army colonel Joshua Darling has returned to the city where he was born, to Liverpool, to open a chocolate factory with about 20 employees. That time there was high unemployment in Liverpool. The Colonel interviewed over 40 men and women. The Colonel promised, that the chocolates will be of the highest quality because the will contain only the finest ingredients. He was sure, that he would become famous in a short time.

In the 50^th boxed chocolate «The Colonel`s Choice» was known in whole Britain and sales figures showed, that it was the country`s №1 choice. Almost half the company`s production of the brand was exported to Europe, Australia and South America. The Colonel thought that they were so successful, because their chocolates were the best in the world. He also said that in 1956 the sales were 10 times greater, than 10 years earlier. They began to produce «Darlings` Delight», «Devonshire Cream Bar» and «Villagers` Block», but they didn`t export them.

In April of the 1963, the Colonel died and the family decided to sell the shares on the stock market. The daughter of the Colonel inherited the majority shareholding and decided to sell a 40 per cent share. So, the company became a public limited company (before it 9% of the shares were owned by the family, so they were a private limited company).

Reorganization

Mrs. Jane Allison former chairwoman of Darling's Chocolates and granddaughter of famous company founder Col. Joshua Darling was shaking hands with new Managing Director, James Brady. It was the very beginning of Darling's takeover and reorganization.

Fountain Foods were those times and very powerful company, while Darling's sales have been declining for some years. Mrs. Jane Allison was convinced that Fountains can revitalize the company, but nevertheless she will still remain on the board as a non-executive and hold a large number of shares.

James Brady, Former Managing Director of Fountain Foods Australia, will become the new Director of Darling's and he will replace Mr. Arnold Sullivan who has taken an early retirement. Moreover, there were persistent rumors that the new managing director will make many employees redundant, but Mr. Brady assured that he would only be taking on new managerial staff.

The takeover in this case is a good solution to Darling's problems, because their experience in frozen and tinned foods production will possibly help in widening the range of products or cutting the cost of production, their factories will help to cope with growing demand and large cash reserves will open up more opportunities, than ever before.

The financial year 2006\07

The financial year 2006\07 was a difficult one for confectionary industry in general and for darlings in particular. There were sharp and unexpected increases in the cost of raw materials. The cost of cocoa beans rose by 40 per cent and sugar prices also increased substantially. Although prices are now falling slightly, darlings still have an exceptionally high level of capital invested in stock.

Last year darlings also faced increased labour costs following the pay rise negotiated in May with the national Union of confectionary workers. These increases came at a time when both markets (domestic and abroad) were extremely competitive and darlings were unable to raise their prices sufficiently to cover the increased costs. There were signs that the market was gradually improving.