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Cadbury W orld (A )
Mark Robinson and Stuart Chambers
Case date 1981
INTRODUCTION
Cadbury's have been a renowned English manufacturer of chocolate products for
more than 100 years. Today, as Cadbury-Schweppes, the firm is a major food
products conglomerate, but one with very deep roots. Indeed, the current mission
statement of the company echoes the philosophy of John Cadbury, the committed
Quaker who founded the company in 1794. Cadbury's mission stresses 'social
responsibility' and the desire to be a good neighbour. It also explicitly sets out a
commitment to encourage the personal fulfilment of employees. Although such
corporate sentiments are not unique to Cadbury, they are rarely so deeply held.
John Cadbury saw his 'drinking cocoa' as a moral alternative to the cheap liquor
sold to the working classes in nineteenth-century industrial England.The high quality
of Cadbury's products, manufactured in the centre of Birmingham, was rewarded
by their commercial success. In 1879, the chocolate factory, by then in his sons'
control, was relocated four miles to the south in a rural setting on the River Bourn.
The Cadburys' initially purchased 15 acres for the factory, but then bought more
and more land. On this holding they developed the first 'model' village to follow a
programme of mixed development. This was an environment for all social classes,
developed as a balanced mixture of house types. By contrast, earlier 'model' villages
were massed collections of a repeated dwelling type: the artisan's cottage. The new
site was called 'Bournville' to give Cadbury products a French-sounding origin -
at that time French chocolate was considered a world leader. Since then, the products
(£1.32 billion sales in 1990) ,Ithe factory and Bournville itself have all grown. Today,
Bournville (now a pleasant suburb of Birmingham) extends to 400 hectares and
comprises 6500 dwellings, housing 20000 people.
CADBURYWORLD
A factory visit to Cadbury's at Bournville has been a highlight for children since the
1920s. Even today, many adults fondly remember their childhood tours and gift of
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PART 2 • DESIGN
a presentation tin of chocolate. These field trips included the production areas and
Bournville village. In 1965 (when 160 000 visitors came), Cadbury decided to stop
these tours due to tighter legislation on the hygiene of food production and the
possibility of intentional contamination of chocolate by visitors. For years after,
however, Cadbury continued to be barraged by requests from educational groups
and individuals who were interested in visiting the factory.
In the face of this interest, management decided in the mid-1980s to reintroducethe popular outing to Cadbury. A number of major changes over the intervening
20 years meant that this new 'product' would be different from the old tours. First,
rationalisation at the factory had released a large area ofland for non-manufacturing
uses. Second, the production process itself had become much more automated and
enclosed since the 1960s, and was no longer likely to be of such interest to visitors.
Finally, the economic climate was more favourable to leisure businesses than had
been the case for many years. The new venture was intended to be a contemporary
'leisure experience' but also to have educational value and be guided by the spirit
. of the old tours. Itwas this combination of factors that influenced the decision to
create Cadbury World.
Inthe words of the Cadbury World promotional material, 'Cadbury World is apermanent exhibition devoted entirely to chocolate - where it came from, who first
drank this mysterious potion, when it became eating chocolate and the part that
Cadbury played in this fascinating story.'
The scheme involved building a new 'visitor centre' adjacent to the main production
plant, constructing car parks and a play area, and hiring and training 87 staff: at a
total cost of around £5 million. Advance estimates by leisure consultants indicated
that it would attract 250 000 visitors a year; based on an average ticket price of
around £3.50, the return on investment -low for Cadbury - would be just under
10 per cent. After much planning, Cadbury World opened to the public in mid-
August 1990.
The 1990 Cadbury-Schweppes Annual Report commented on this new venture:'Its success as a unique and absorbing leisure experience can be measured by the
185000 visitors who enjoyed the CadburyWorld experience between August and
the year end.'
THE EXPER IENCE
Nearly all visitors arrive by car or coach. Parking for cars is arranged in three areas
with a total capacity of 484. Separate spaces close to the 'Alternative Exhibition'
can accommodate 24 coaches and there is a 'picking up/setting down' area close to
the main exhibition. Data suggest that on a representative weekday (during school
term time), 15 pre-booked coaches and about 204 cars come to Cadbury World.
Typically, there are about 35 visitors per coach and 3 per car.
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CADBURY WORLD (A)
The site is served by two other means of transport, inheritances from its industrial
past: to the rear of the factory are a railway station and a canal pier. Some visitors
come by train and there are a few commerciaLbarge operators who run tourist trips
from the centre of Birmingham out to Bournville. However, the plant layout means
these visitors have about a 10-minute walk:around the perimeter of the factory
before reaching Cadbury World. This path has been signed as 'The Factory Trail'.
The exhibition's reception area has three tills.Two are for individuals and the
other is for the leaders of coach visitor groups. The ticketing system has been the
subject of experimentation, the latest being a 'timed ticket'. This prints out a specifictime slot on a batch of tickets. However, computer problems meant that this has
not been implemented.
Ticket prices and times of opening and entry are set out in Table 6.1.
Opening times Open every day except Christmas Day
Mon.-Sat. 10.00 a.m.-5.30 p.m.
Sun. 12.00 noon-6.00 p.m.
Last admissions Mon.-Sat. 4.00 p.m., Sun. 4.30 p.m.
1991 prices(includes VAT) Adult £4.00
Child £3.00 (5-15 inclusive)
Under fives FREE
Family rate £12.85 (2 adults and 2 children)
Senior Citizen £3.60 (Mon.-Fri. only)
Groups (20 or more) must book in advance.
Table 6.1 Ticket prices and opening times
The booking system for groups requires organisers to specify their group's time
of arrival and pay a £25 deposit. The maximum size for any single group is set at
60 people. Cadbury World schedules coaches at regular times throughout the dayto space the arrival of groups. Because of the difficulty of estimating the duration
of road journeys, coaches often arrive late and miss their agreed times. This adds
to the queues of visitors at the exhibition's entrance at busy periods.
The entrance to Cadbury World has low barriers funnelling individual visitors
toward the tills.Beyond these, the reception area gives access to the exhibition, the
shop and the restaurant. Sometimes this area isused for attractions such asa 'honky-
tonk' piano player. At other times, a TV continuously plays a four-minute video
previewing many of the features visitors will see at Cadbury World. This includes
many parts of the interior of the exhibition, the packaging plant, and short extracts
of other videos which are running inside Cadbury World. A sketch of the Cadbury
World facility is reproduced in Fig. 6.1.
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PART 2 • DESIGN
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CAD BURY WORLD (A)
The entrance to the exhibition itself is via a pair of unmarked double doors. A
ticket collector stationed here controls the number of visitors entering. A judgement
of the number of visitors to be admitted at one time is made by the ticket collector,
who periodically enters the exhibition and checks the number of visitors before 'Bull
Street', which marks the end of the first part of the exhibition. On average, in a busy
period 15-20 visitors are let in every two and a half minutes. For most of the
exhibition, visitors have no guides.
The first section of the tour describes the ancient origins of chocolate and tries
to capture the atmosphere of a South American jungle. Visitors enter a darkenedroom which has been 'dressed' with artificial trees and lianas. Among these, wax
models of South American Indians are shown making and drinking chocolate. The
narrative of the story is carried on a variety of short sign-boards and continued, a
little further on, by a continuously playing video' documentary' lasting three minutes.
'Jungle sounds' are played over loudspeakers. Some visitors pass quickly through
this section, treating it almost as an antechamber to the exhibition. A family group
of visitors was overheard while moving through the jungle:
FATHER: 'I know that smell, what is it?'
MOTHER: 'Phew, it's nice to get in out of the sun. It's quite cool in here. It'll stop my chocolates
from melting. I should have bought them at the end of the tour!
FATHER: 'Look at these Indians, they didn't wony about their chocolate melting, they drank it!'BOY: 'Mum, come on, I can hear the advert from the TV. The one with the "Man in Black"
in it!
MOTHER: 'Hold on.you'ue not seen thisyet. There is a video about the Spanish and the Indians.
I think it's in the middle, I wonder how long it'll be before it starts again?'
FATHER: 'Fibreglass! I knew I recognised it.'
The visitors then pass a scene featuring a representation of Hernando Cortes,
the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, beyond which the jungle abruptly ends. This area
has a serving hatch and a sign invites visitors to take a small plastic cup of liquid
chocolate (Tike the Incas used to drink'). A swing-top bin is next to the hatch for
the disposal of used cups. This section is generally supervised by a member of staff.
An attendant explained: 'We have problems with some of the children. They takefive or six of the cups, cover themselves in chocolate and make themselves ill.'
Visitors then pass a pictorial wall-mounted display and move (still at their own
pace) into a 'room' describing the introduction of chocolate to Europe. To the rear,
the faint sounds of the jungle can still be heard.
Beyond the European Room, visitors enter 'Bull Street' - a replica of a cobbled
Georgian street, with contemporary shop windows. An attendant in Bull Street halts
the flow of people to form groups outside a door to the next part of the tour.
This next area is the Marie Cadbury room, which has seating for 16 and
surrounding standing room. At peak times as many as 70 people are assembled in
the room, although it was originally designed for only about one-third of this number.
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PART 2 • DESIGN
After the doors close, there is a five-minute automated 'show' which depicts, with
taped voices and three static, illuminated scenes, the early days of Cadbury. This
programme is operated by the attendant who closes the doors and starts the show
with a switch. Completion of the show is indicated to the attendant by an unobtrusive
light. This is the prompt to open the doors to allow the next group in. However, the
attendant generally waits for a minute or two before opening the doors. In this time,
the preceding group, realising that the show is over, begin to look at the wall-mountedexhibits in the room. When the attendant opens the door they begin to make their
own way out of a separate exit to the next section of the exhibition. Filling and
emptying the Marie Cadbury room takes a total of about four minutes on average,
although this does increase for large groups.
The next area comprises pictorial exhibits explaining the history of Cadbury,
Bournville village and the social background to the firm. At one end of the room, a
video entitled 'Making Chocolate' runs for three minutes. Beyond this is a mock-
up of an old factory entrance - with a working 'clock' and 'clocking-in' cards. The
entrance has two gates marked 'MEN' and 'WOMEN', as did the original factory.
Families are, therefore, separated briefly at this point. This interactive section of the
exhibition is often a cause of amusement, with older visitors explaining to childrenhow the 'clock' works.
Throughout the exhibition it appears that different types of visitors spend their
time in different ways. Most pensioners like the videos, but skip most of the written
material. School groups,however, tend to focus on the notices and narrative material.
An educational 'task sheet' available for children from the reception is a way of
holding these visitors' attention.
From here, visitors leave the new building and directly enter part of the factory
- the East Cocoa Block. The contrast is marked: the experience is typical of a factory
built in the 1930s. The floors and stairs are concrete and the walls bare, .cream-
painted brick. Surprisingly, there is little smell of chocolate.
What the visitor sees next depends on whether the factory itself is running. Thefactory has scheduled maintenance shut-down periods of about 37 days per year.
When the factory is working, visitors see the packaging plant. At other times they
miss this out and go directly to the demonstration area. It is clearly indicated in
advance that the packaging plant is not guaranteed to be open every day. Nevertheless,
a few visitors become quite annoyed if they cannot visit it because of these shut-
downs.
THE PA C KA GIN G PL AN T
This is located at second-floor level and reached by the original factory stairs. There
is a ground-floor waiting area for visitors in wheelchairs who cannot reach thepackaging plant, since there is no lift. At the top landing a queue forms in front of
a TV playing Cadbury's adverts. The tour comprises a route with three stopping
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CADBURY WORLD CA)
points or 'stations'. A guide collects a group of around 30 people from the landing
and leads it to the first station. Here, a short video showing the factory is played
with a commentary added by the guide.
Following this halt of about three minutes, the guide leads the group to the next
station. On the way, they meet the preceding group returning from the second
station. This causes some confusion and delay, as the groups must pass in a narrow
walkway. The guide then marshals the group at the second station (about 30 metres
from the previous halt) from where the packaging machinery can be seen and heard.
The packaging plant itself is a very clean area in which white-coated attendants and
engineers monitor the wrapped bars of chocolate rolling off the line. The format
here is the same: a brief video which explains the packaging process, with live
commentary added by the guide. Visitors may be surprised to see that some guides
read their commentary from hand-written prompt cards. After the video has run
they follow the preceding group and retrace their steps, meeting the next group on
the walkway. Before leaving this area the guide halts, gives another brief explanation
and then offers visitors chocolates from a tray. On warm days, visitors are offered
paper towels on which to clean their fmgers. The packaging plant section of the tour
is generally completed in about eight minutes.
Shaping
and forming
THE DEM ONSTRA TION A REA
This part of the tour is run in guided groups of about 15 people. At peak times,
about eight guides are on duty. Guides have the option of addressing their groups
with their own voices or, for larger groups, by means of a portable microphone.
Visitors are encouraged to ask questions. There are normally several groups on the
circuit round the demonstration area (see Fig. 6.2).
The demonstration area is on the ground floor and shows a number of production
operations carried out by about seven staff on small, 'old technology' machines.
These machines have been chosen to enable operations such as the coating of nuts
in chocolate to be seen and understood. The visitors are separated from these
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Fig. 6.2 The demonstration area
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PART 2 • DESIGN
operations by chest-high perspex screens. The demonstration staff, who have been
recruited from the factory, wear white production clothing and have been trained
to interact with visitors. After watching an operation (for example vibrating chocolate
into moulds or turning out blocks), visitors are offered samples of chocolate. Overhead,
a number of hanging photographs show the full-scale production equivalent of each
of these machines.This section of the tour continues with a number of demonstrations
of the production ofluxury, handmade chocolates. As before, staff are behind clearscreens; they carry out a number of dipping, ennobling (coating) and finishing
operations. After being given.more free samples and asking questions, the group
moves out of the demonstration area and back into the new building. Although there
is not a set number of points of interest, visitors may see up to eight operations in
this area.
Inthe demonstration area, some visitors 'graze', moving from one guide's group
to the one ahead, and complete the section in as little as six minutes. By contrast,
other visitors take the opportunity to ask many questions, look at all the points of
interest and sample all the free chocolate. Inthis case, they and their guide may take
up to 17 minutes to get round. No overtaking of guides by the following guides is
allowed. Guides, therefore, need to adjust the length of their explanations in orderto match the speed of their group to that of any preceding group - which may
include an unusually slow visitor.
Guides have noticed that they fmd it easier to control their groups when they use
the microphones.
EXIT
The remainder of the tour is unaccompanied and focuses on marketing material.
This includes a video on the making of a MilkTrayTV advert (the 'Man in Black')
and video compilations of advertisements which can be selected by visitors pressing
buttons.
The end of the route leads directly into the rear of the shop.
THE SHOP
This sells a wide range of Cadbury products as well as 'branded' mementoes such
as tea towels, mugs and T-shirts. Most of the goods are on self-service display and
pilferage by children is believed to be a problem. There are three checkouts and
most goods are bar-coded. Observations show that, on average, during busy periods
a customer can be served at each till every 15 seconds.
While most tour visitors enter the shop through the back entrance (having
completed the tour), a number of customers also browse and buy before the beginning
of the tour.
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CADBURY WORLD (A )
THE RESTAURANT
The Centre Services Manager described the restaurant: 'The restaurant is modelled
on that of a "Food Court" such as those typically included in modern indoor shopping
centres. There is a good choice of foods and there is something for everybody.'
Approached from the reception area via a single entrance, it is a self-service
restaurant with five serving points arranged in a row. Four of these are labelled:
'Patisserie', 'Baked Potato', 'Traditional' and 'Seafood'. The fifth is a heavily used
point serving tea and coffee. The range of food choice cannot be seen from the
entrance to the restaurant. Visitors enter, peruse the various serving points and then
make their decision on food type and thus decide which queue to join. This can take
a little while, especially in the case of some old people and families. The popularity
of the adjacent 'Baked Potato', tea and coffee and 'Traditional' serving points
results in knots of customers at busy times. Payment is taken separately at each sales
point.
Customers take their selections to the seating area. This is a large airy room
providing comfortable surroundings. Fifty-three tables of various sizes provide 169
covers.
Typically, people spend 25 minutes in the restaurant. Tables are promptly cleared
and cleaned by pleasant staff based in a 'refuge' in the centre of the seating area.
Most visitors to Cadbury World come into the restaurant.
C OFFEE A ND IC E-C REA M PA RLOUR
This small area is approached via the shop and has 46 'covers', comprising stools
at the island bar and separate tables around it.The design of the parlour is reminiscent
of an American-style diner. The parlour sells coffee, tea and ice-cream. On average,
a visitor stays in the parlour for 18 minutes. At anyone time, about 25-30 people
can be found there.
THE ALTERNATIVE EXH IB IT ION
This is located close to the coach park, 300 metres from the main exhibition. It is
a converted factory building, about 250 square metres in area. In 'feel', it is more
like a traditional museum than the rest of Cadbury World. It houses static displays
of old machinery, a fire engine and other historic items. More than 95 per cent of
visitors to the main exhibition come here. A small 'shuttle bus' is provided to take
visitors between the two sites. The Alternative Exhibition is staffed, and visitors
(some of whom are retired Cadbury employees) often ask detailed technical
questions.
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PART 2 • DESIGN
THE UNHAPPY FEW!
Cadbury World receives approximately six letters of complaint per 10 000 visitors.
Each one receives a reply. Problems with unhappy visitors in the exhibition are dealt
with by staff but, if necessary, the Manager will personally attend to aggrieved
parties. Staff are trained to ascertain customers' expectations and why they are
disappointed. The objective is to 'send people home happy'. A recent incidentinvolved two pensioners who were upset by the closure of the packaging plant on
a day not explicitly specified in the promotional material.
PENSIONERS: 'Your brochure says the packaging plant is closedfrom tomorrow, not today. This
is the second time this has happened. It was closed a month ago when we last came. ~ want
our money back.'
CADBURY WORLD STAFF: 'I'm sorry the plant is closed, but thefactory ispreparing for the shut-
down today. I know the last time you came it was also closed, but then it was at a clearly
scheduled time.'
After a few more exchanges the Manager saw the customers and gave them vouchers
for Cadbury products, which seemed to satisfy them.
MARKETING
The Centre Services Manager explained:
'At present, our only promotion is a limited drop of leaflets to travel agents and Tourist
Boards. 1 -% also have an arrangement with British Rail for combined, reduced rate
travel and Cadbury ~rld tickets.
'1-%do not see ourselves as being in competition with other attractions in the 1-%st
Midlands. 1 -% have provided a new faciHty for the local community, and an exciting
outing for visitors to the area!
'Our pricing policy was decided after looking q,t the duration of the "experience".
W B think it takes a half day: about an hour and a half in the exhibition, half an hourin the Alternative Exhibition and then the restaurant and shop. 1 -% then looked at
comparable leisure venues such asWarwick Castle and tried toprovide value for money
for visitors.
'W B strive to give the customer a good feeling and believe happy staff create happy
customers. To give you an example, recently we were telephoned by an anxious group
leader whose coach was coming from a long distance and was delayed. The passengers
had not eaten for hours, so we kept the Restaurant open an extra 45 minutes to let them
get a meal'
CUSTOMER INFORMATION
86
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