Cadbury owner Mondelez stockpiling chocolate and biscuits to prepare for no-deal Brexit

Mondelez International, the owner of Cadbury, is stockpiling ingredients, chocolates and biscuits to guard against the negative effects of a no-deal Brexit, a senior executive at the company has said.

With no trade deal yet agreed and the 29 March deadline day looming, the confectionerymaker is one of many firms facing huge uncertainty about how goods will move across the border.

Hugh Weber, the president of Mondelez Europe told the Times: “Like the whole of the food and drink industry in the UK, we would prefer a good deal that allows the free flow of products as that would have less of an impact to the UK consumer.

“However, we are also preparing for a hard Brexit and, from a buffering perspective for Mondelez, we are stocking higher levels of ingredients and finished products, although you can only do so much because of the shelf life of our products.

“We have a contingency plan in place to manage [a hard Brexit], as the UK is not self-sufficient in terms of food ingredients, so that could be a challenge.”

A spokesperson for Mondelez said the company stood by the comments, which lay out part of the company’s European strategy. Mondelez would not comment further on its plans.

The food and drink industry is one of a number of sectors that are building up stockpiles of raw materials and manufactured goods to prepare for a scenario in which the UK crashes out of the EU without a trade deal.

Withdrawal from the European Union will cause delays at borders to carry out customs checks, which are not currently required as the UK is part of the customs union and single market.

Theresa May’s current Chequers plan, which is to accept much of the EU’s common rulebook, is facing widespread opposition among Tory MPs.

Those internal divisions exploded into a bitter public row on Monday after Boris Johnson‘s criticism of Theresa May was branded “disgusting”.

Some senior Tories furiously denounced the former foreign secretary after he accused the prime minister of having “wrapped a suicide vest” around Britain’s constitution.

Research published this week predicted that stockpiling supplies to prepare for no deal may boost GDP in the short term but it makes a mini recession after Brexit “almost inevitable”.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said output could rise by 0.5 per cent because of the extra activity associated with building up supplies.

However, businesses are likely to run down inventories in the months after Brexit, leading to a contraction in the economy, CEBR executive director Professor Douglas McWilliams said.