Cadbury is looking into the sale of its Australian drinks brands in a bid to try and meet profit targets.
The company said that it was conducting a review of its Australian beverage business, which has annual sales of £300m, although it said that no decision had yet been made.
The disclosure came as the group reported a 28% rise in group profits, with pre-tax profits of £143m in the six months to the end of June.
Roger Carr, Cadbury’s newly appointed chairman who recently stepped down from the same role at Mitchells & Butlers, said that the company needed to adopt a more aggressive stance on cost reduction to achieve targets of reaching profit margins in the mid-teens by 2011.
The disposal would turn Cadbury into a pure-play confectioner following the demerger of its US drinks arm, now known as the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, in May.
