The boss of Cadbury chocolate-maker Mondelez has admitted he is “not pleased” that the firm’s taxes are helping to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine – but insisted it was the “right decision” to stay in the country after the 2022 invasion.
Chief executive Dirk Van de Put said pulling out 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,” he told the BBC. “It would have probably given them a much bigger source of income, keep on selling our products to fund the war. So I feel that in the end it is not the most popular decision, but I think it was the right decision.”
“Mondelez boss admits taxes fund Ukraine war but defends staying in Russia to avoid confiscation.”
Since Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine, Mondelez has generated annual sales of between $1bn (£745m) and $1.4bn from the country. Many Western companies, such as McDonald’s, exited Russia entirely, but Mondelez said it had only discontinued new investment and suspended advertising.
Van de Put’s comments came in an in-depth discussion as part of the BBC’s Big Boss Interview series. “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. We pay taxes in Russia that helps the war. I’m not pleased about that.”
The decision has drawn fierce criticism. Last year, more than 70 MPs signed a letter from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ukraine to Van de Put, calling for Mondelez to sever its 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’.”
Meanwhile, Mondelez continues to operate in Ukraine, where the war is a daily reality. On the morning Van de Put spoke to the BBC, 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 one in Vyshhorod, close to the capital Kyiv. “One plant got hit twice, we’ve rebuilt it twice,” Van de Put said, adding that the cost runs into tens of millions each time. “We’ve agreed that we will rebuild every single time there so we keep on investing in the country.”