Cadbury's chocolate egg sales melt away

The purveyor of the creme egg and countless other gaudy milk chocolate creations admitted today it was undone this Easter by the untimely earliness of the movable feast and by rival's price-cutting at a time of rising costs.

The news helped send its shares down 81/2p to 570p, the biggest faller in the FTSE 100 in early trading.

In a statement today at the company's annual meeting, where investors are set to wave through the break up of Cad-bury Schweppes into a UK-based confectionery company and an American drinks concern, the company admitted recent trading has been mixed.

Cadbury said Easter egg sales had been hit by "a much shorter selling season" than usual as Easter Sunday occurred earlier than it has done in more than a century.

The group further admitted its decision to pass on to customers the rising foodstuffs and energy costs involved in chocolate manufacturing has also hurt.

"Our decision to limit our participation in aggressive seasonal Easter discounting has impacted our share," the company said.

Cadbury's growth in the UK was pegged back to 3% against growth across all its markets of 7%.

But the company told shareholders that although its market share in Easter eggs has fallen, it made some of that back by keeping its prices high.

Cadbury said it also lost market share as a result of the disruption from last year's floods at its Sheffield factory, though gum sales have been a winner with the launch of three new flavours under its Trident brand.

The demerger of the newly named Dr Pepper Snapple Group from Cad-bury after the intervention of American activist investor Nelson Peltz has spooked major investors at the sheer cost of the deal.

The annual meeting was told that $4.4 billion (£2.2 billion) of financing for the US drinks business is in place and as a result the remaining Cadbury company will see its £3.2 billion of net debt nearly halved to £1.65 billion.