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Monday 22nd September
BS, BCS, ICT

Year 11 and Year 13 trip to Cadbury World 

On the 22nd September, a large group of Business Studies and ICT students from Years 11 and 13 travelled the one and three quarter hours to Birmingham’s Cadbury factory.  Some had been before, others hadn’t, but everyone knew they would benefit from seeing how this world-famous factory was run.

On arrival at the factory, we were struck with the smell of chocolate – hardly surprising really! The group then began their tour through the factory starting with ‘The Aztec Jungle’.  This area described how chocolate was first made using spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and also how it was brought back to Spain.  We then moved through to a hologram display which told the story of chocolate in England – the fashions, the medical beliefs etc.  This led through to ‘The Cadbury Story’ which started in the square where John Cadbury’s tea shop used to be.  The Cadburys hadn’t always made chocolate; they were actually tea and coffee merchants.  After Cadbury’s story, we learnt how chocolate is made – the growing, the preparation, and all the way through to tempering the final bar.  During this video, there were certain special effects used to catch our attention – moving seats and hot lights to name a few!

At the end of this, we all moved upstairs towards the packaging plant. Here we watched the flow wrappers and conveyors at work.  The flow wrappers can wrap between 300 and 800 bars a minute!  The bars, now wrapped, were carried on to the packing robots and packaged into boxes, or ‘outers’, ready for shipment all over the globe.  There was also an area where small chocolates were being hand-made.  There were no big machines, only people filling moulds and wrapping parcels by hand.  This was connected to the demonstration area where there was the opportunity to write your name in chocolate!  They also showed how they get the small chocolates out of the moulds by tapping them. 

On the way from here to the advertising section, we passed through ‘Cadabra’ – definitely more targeted towards the younger visitors! In the advertising and promotion area they explained about their 11-year contract with Coronation Street, which was only terminated last year.  This put them in a prime viewing slot on television.  There were also examples of their adverts through the decades, from when they first began right up to modern day. This led into the ‘purple planet’ – an interactive area with the possibility of immortalising yourself in chocolate!

When we had finished here, we had finished the tour and found ourselves in the shop.  This is said to be the ‘Biggest Cadbury shop in the world!’ and it certainly had everything. However, there wasn’t much time for shopping as we had to be on our way to the Education Centre in the Bourneville Experience.  Here we had a short talk regarding both Cadbury’s approach to marketing and how they use ICT.  This greatly helped all our studies with valuable information about how these processes work in real life situations.

One hour and a fuller notebook later, and we were all hungry.  We went over and queued for ‘Essence’ whilst eating our packed lunch. Barely five minutes later, we entered our last experience for the day.  This concentrated solely on the initial manufacture of the Dairy Milk bar that has been loved for generations, and the stress on the importance of the ‘Glass and a half’.  This led us into a little room which faced us with loads of dispenser jars holding different sweets like Wine Gums or Liquorice Allsorts and little taps.  We were able to choose one ingredient to put with a little cup of runny chocolate – yummy! After this it was nearly time to go.  There was only time for a quick bit of retail therapy and some photographs before clambering back onto the coach and returning to Oswestry just after 4:00.

Liza
(pictures by Andrew)