Cadbury has announced strong 2008 profits.

Amidst the current bleak economic crisis, one of the world’s largest confectionery businesses, Cadbury plc, has revealed profits up 30% to £559 million, with business revenue up 7% compared with 2007.

Cadbury, whose brands include Cadbury Dairy Milk, Trident gum, Halls throat sweets and Green and Blacks chocolate, reported strong growth across all its categories – with chocolate up 6%, gum up 10%, and sweets up 6%.

In the UK, Cadbury experienced the successful launch of the Crème Egg Twisted, along with the re-launch of its Wispa chocolate bar, which delivered a record £25m in revenue since September 2008.

Last year, Cadbury announced the demerger of Cadbury Schweppes’ Americas Beverages business and the sale of its Australian Beverages Business. Todd Stitzer, Cadbury’s CEO said: “In 2008, Cadbury completed its transformation into a pureplay confectionery company. Our strong revenue growth and significant improvement in operating margin demonstrate the relative resilience of our focused business model.

“Whilst we will not be immune from the continued weak economic environment, at this early stage in 2009, we expect to deliver revenue growth around the lower end of our 4-6% goal range and to make good progress toward our goal of mid-teens margins by 2011.”

Cadbury employs more than 50,000 people in 60 countries worldwide and generates on average £500m worth of sales every year – 46% of its revenue comes from its chocolate sales, 32% from sales of gum, and 22% from sweets sales.