UK – Kraft signs licensing deal for Cadbury-branded cafes

MILAN – According to the Financial Times, Kraft Foods has endorsed a 20-year licence to a group of retail entrepreneurs to set up a national chain of Cadbury-branded cafes that will compete with high street coffee shops

The group could open as many as 60 cafés – to be called Cadbury Cocoa House – in locations around the UK in the next three to five years, and has already begun to negotiate with landlords for the first sites in London, which could be running before the end of 2010, reports the daily.

Cadbury confirmed on Thursday that it was in discussions about the concept and that Kraft had signed on to the licensing deal, without providing any financial backing for it.