Todd Stitzer, the 55-year-old American chief executive of Cadbury Schweppes, has been here before. In November 2003, just six months into the job, Mr Stitzer unveiled a programme of factory closures that would lead to 5,000 jobs being cut as the group concentrated on organic growth.

Mr Stitzer, the first American to take charge of the 183-year-old group, founded in the UK by Quakers, said then as now that Cadbury had little choice but to reshape or buckle under worldwide competitive pressures in the confectionery market.

Asked in a interview with Andrew Davidson of The Sunday Times what the founding fathers would have thought, Mr Stitzer, a former lawyer, replied: "I think they would have wanted to have a sustainable and competitive business and we have to take the actions to keep Cadbury Schweppes that way.

"But we take them in a very Cadbury Schweppsian way - by being thoughtful and consultative and sensitive."

He described himself as "consultative but not consensual".

Mr Stitzer, the son of a YMCA executive, has spent the lion's share of his career at the chocolates and drinks group, which he joined as assistant general counsel in North America in 1983.

Having worked his way through a variety of strategic and management roles at the company, he became president and chief executive of Dr Pepper/Seven Up drinks for three years between 1997 and 2000 and was chief strategy officer from March 2000 to May 2003.

Mr Stitzer is also an independent director at Diageo.

He is a competitive sportsman, who plays tennis and lists skiing and sailing as among his interests.

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