The boss of Cadbury owner Mondelez has admitted he is “not pleased” that his company’s taxes are helping to fund the war in Ukraine – but insisted it was the “right decision” to keep operating in Russia.
Dirk Van de Put, chief executive of the confectionery giant, said pulling out after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 would have risked thousands of jobs and left the company vulnerable to the Kremlin seizing control of its local operations. “They would have confiscated our plant. It would have probably given them a much bigger source of income, keep on selling our products to fund the war,” he told the BBC in an interview for the Big Boss series.
“Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put says staying in Russia was the 'right decision' despite admitting taxes fund Ukraine war.”
Since the invasion, Russia has generated annual sales of between $1bn (£745m) and $1.4bn for Mondelez, which also owns Philadelphia cream cheese, Ritz crackers and Toblerone. Van de Put acknowledged the dilemma: “We pay taxes in Russia that helps the war. I’m not pleased about that.”
His comments come after more than 70 MPs signed a letter from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine calling on Mondelez to sever business ties with Russia. Alex Sobel, chair of the group, wrote: “Continuing to operate in a nation responsible for the deaths of countless Ukrainian civilians and the abduction of thousands of children cannot be justified under any definition of ‘business as usual’.”
Van de Put said the company had stopped new investment in its Russian business and suspended advertising spending. “I think over time you try to be neutral in the whole conflict. We’re not trying to take any side,” he said. “I think we did the right thing for our people in Russia. Can we be criticised for that? Yeah, of course.”
While many Western companies such as McDonald’s exited Russia after the invasion, Mondelez chose to stay. But the war is never far from its operations in Ukraine, where it runs two plants – one in Trostyanets near the Russian border and another in Vyshhorod near Kyiv. “One plant got hit twice, we’ve rebuilt it twice,” Van de Put said, adding that each rebuild costs tens of millions of dollars. The company has committed to rebuilding every time and doubled everybody’s pay. On the morning of his BBC interview, an office building in Ukraine was hit. “Everybody’s safe,” he said. “But yes, it’s the reality of the situation.”