What is an ex-pat to do? Unless Hershey’s recent action can be turned around,all those imported childhood favorites from Cadbury’s—Kit-Kat, Toffee Crisp, Crunchie, and many more—will be banned! And although, as it has for years, Hershey will continue to make Cadbury products for sale in the U.S., the ingredients are different and, as the connoisseurs will tell you, “They’re not the same!”
When the online bulletin from DNAInfo broke the story on January 22nd, WestView News immediately called our neighborhood importers of all things British—Nicki Perry at “Carry On Tea & Sympathy” and Jenny Myers from “Myers of Keswick”—for their reactions.
The word from Nicky was “Outraged.” Puzzled by Hershey’s sudden move to ban distribution of the British products in the U.S., we asked her ‘Why now?.’ To which she replied that she suspected the problem was that the importers, LBB (Let’s Buy British) and Posh Nosh, had recently been more aggressively competing with Hershey by distributing to a wider, less specialized market. A customer piped up that she had seen Cadbury products at Fairway!
As for a solution, Nicki suggested all parties concerned need to sit down together to work out an arrangement whereby the UK products could continue to be distributed to the specialty stores like hers whose whole existence depends on imported products.
When WVN spoke with Jenny, she said her first reaction had been “how ‘un-American’of Hershey to be trying to crush the competition!” And she agreed with Nicki’s verdict as to the reason for the sudden Hershey move against the distributors, and with her suggested solution. The situation for Myers of Keswick, however, turns out to be slightly different; from the day 30 years ago when her father, Pete Myers, opened their little store on Hudson Street, for anything he didn’t make on the premises (the pies, sausages, etc.) he never used distributors, but imported direct from the source. So, despite the paperwork involved, Jenny has followed in Pete’s footsteps, and deals with the FDA direct.
The good news is that both Nicki and Jenny have already made sure their Easter orders have been taken care of—so, come April, be sure to hop on in for your Easter bunnies and Cadbury’s chocolate eggs.
