Todd Stitzer may be head of the world’s biggest confectionery company, but there was no sugar coating to the announcement he made yesterday.

The American chief executive of Cadbury Schweppes unveiled a gruelling global programme of nearly 8,000 job cuts and ten factory closures designed to boost the company’s growth prospects and defend it against the risk of a takeover.

The Harvard-educated Mr Stitzer, who is 55, originally joined Cadbury as a corporate lawyer in 1983 after practising mergers and acquisitions law at New York firm Lord Day & Lord.

He rose through the ranks and in 1991 was appointed group development director, going on to take up senior positions at Cadbury Beverages North America.

He was named president and chief executive of Dr Pepper/Seven Up in 1997 and in 2000 was appointed chief strategy officer and a board director of Cadbury Schweppes.

Three years later he was appointed chief executive officer.

Since then he has overseen a period of rapid change at Cadbury Schweppes, including a previous cost-cutting programme known as Fuel for Growth and the recent decision to sell its Americas beverages arm, which includes Dr Pepper and Snapple.

The decision, which followed pressure from the activist shareholder Nelson Peltz, is likely to raise up to £7.5 billion for the company.

Mr Stitzer now plans to simplify the remainder of the business and focus purely on confectionery and chocolate.

However, yesterday’s announcement will win him few friends at some of Britain’s largest unions. Brian Revell, of the Unite union, said: “We have worked hard with Cadbury in recent years and cooperated in a change programme that means the UK factories are extremely efficient. We are, therefore, concerned by today’s announcement, which we are convinced is driven by the threat of a takeover by private equity.”

Mr Stitzer, who was paid a total of £3.4 million last year, is also a nonexecutive director of the drinks group Diageo.

His hobbies include tennis and walking and when not working he enjoys spending time with his wife Marenda and two children at their home in Virginia Water, Surrey.