The boss of Cadbury chocolate-maker Mondelez has admitted he is “not pleased” that his company’s taxes are funding Russia’s war in Ukraine – but insists staying was the “right decision”.
Dirk Van de Put, chief executive of the multinational behind brands including Philadelphia cream cheese, Ritz crackers and Toblerone, told the BBC’s Big Boss Interview series that pulling out would have risked thousands of jobs and left the firm vulnerable to Kremlin seizure of its local operations.
“Mondelez CEO says staying in Russia was the right decision, despite taxes funding Ukraine war.”
“I think over time you try to be neutral in the whole conflict. We’re not trying to take any side,” Van de Put said. “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 Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mondelez has generated between $1bn and $1.4bn in annual sales from the country. Many Western companies, such as McDonald’s, exited Russia entirely, but Mondelez said it had halted new investment and suspended advertising spending there.
The decision has drawn sharp criticism from UK politicians. Last year, more than 70 MPs signed a letter from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine to Van de Put, urging Mondelez to sever its business ties with Russia. 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 argued the alternative was worse. “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.”
Mondelez continues to operate in Ukraine as well, where the conflict is never far away. On the morning Van de Put spoke to the BBC, an office building there was 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 the capital Kyiv. “One plant got hit twice, we’ve rebuilt it twice,” Van de Put said, noting 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 salary when the conflict started.”