The chief executive of Cadbury chocolate-maker Mondelez has admitted he is “not pleased” that the firm’s taxes are helping fund Russia’s war in Ukraine, but insisted staying in the country was the “right decision”.
Dirk Van de Put, speaking in the BBC’s Big Boss Interview series, defended the company’s decision to continue operating in Russia after the full-scale invasion in 2022, even as many Western firms such as McDonald’s pulled out.
“Mondelez boss Dirk Van de Put defends staying in Russia, admits taxes fund Ukraine war.”
“I think over time you try to be neutral in the whole conflict,” he said. “We’re not trying to take any side. I think we did the right thing for our people in Russia. Can we be criticised for that? Yeah, of course. We pay taxes in Russia that helps the war. I’m not pleased about that.”
Since the invasion, Russia has generated between $1bn (£745m) and $1.4bn in annual sales for Mondelez, which also owns Philadelphia, Ritz and Toblerone. The company has halted new investment and advertising in the country, but its continued presence has drawn fierce criticism.
Last year, more than 70 MPs signed a letter organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine urging Van de Put to cut ties. Alex Sobel, the group’s chair, 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 countered that leaving would backfire. “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 said. “So I feel that in the end it is not the most popular decision, but I think it was the right decision.”
Meanwhile, Mondelez continues to operate in Ukraine, where the war is a daily reality. On the morning of the interview, Van de Put said an office building there had been hit. “Everybody’s safe,” he said. “But yes, it’s the reality of the situation.”
The company runs two manufacturing plants in Ukraine – one in Trostyanets, near the Russian border, and another in Vyshhorod, close to 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. “We’ve agreed that we will rebuild every single time there so we keep on investing in the country. We doubled everybody’s …”