Cadbury, the British confectionery giant, announced today that 250 jobs will go as part of a cost-cutting programme and warned that the price of chocolate will rise next year due to higher commodity prices.

The company, which receives more than 80 per cent of its revenues from outside the UK, also said today that it would put more focus on its international operations by changing its reporting structure.

Its previous four-region management structure will be replaced by seven to reflect continued growth in areas such as Latin America. This will effectively remove a layer of management and many of the job losses are expected to come from this change.

Cadbury demerged its drinks business Schweppes one year ago and has since introduced a plan called "Vision into Action", which is designed to increase the food company's profit margins. It is investing £650 million to increase its margins into "the mid teens" by 2011.

In a third quarter trading update, Cadbury said that its revenue growth in emerging markets was 13 per cent compared to an overall increase of 6 per cent. Its guidance for the full year was unchanged.

However, it did warn of higher product prices next year as input costs for 2009 were already 6 to 8 per cent higher than this year.

Cadbury said: "We continue to expect further cost pressures in 2009, particularly in respect of cocoa costs.

"Consequently, we are in the process of implementing price increases in most of our major markets to cover the impact of these future cost rises."

Todd Stitzer, chief executive of Cadbury, said: "Our new streamlined organisation, together with additional cost reduction initiatives, will increase the focus on implementing our strategic plans and underpin delivery of our margin targets.

"Despite weaker economic conditions, we expect strong profit growth for the year and reconfirm the revenue and margin guidance we gave in July."

Cadbury announced last week that Ken Hanna, its chief financial officer, would step down next April after five years with the company. Mr Hanna oversaw the demerger of the confectionery giant from its US soft drinks business. He will become chairman of Inchcape, the UK car dealer where he has been a non-executive director since 2001.

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