Cadbury owner Mondelez has followed in the footsteps of Lindt and Unilever, amongst a growing list of firms to reduce operations in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
The FMCG giant, which is the parent company of Oreo and Toblerone, has revealed it is “scaling back all non-essential activities” in Russia, but stopped short of halting operations completely.
Mondelez, which described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “very concerning”, said it will continue to supply food into the country and support workers in the region.
The move follows a raft of businesses including Heineken, Nestle, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, halting trading in Russia, in response to the war, launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24.
READ MORE: Imperial becomes first tobacco giant to halt operations in Russia
In a letter to staff, Mondelez International chief executive officer Dirk Van de Put said the business “condemns this unjust aggression” and revealed its operations in Ukraine remain closed and said it is prioritising the safety of staff in the embattled country.
“As a food company, we are scaling back all non-essential activities in Russia while helping maintain continuity of the food supply during the challenging times ahead,” Van de Put said.
“We will also continue to support our colleagues in the market who are facing great uncertainty.
“We will focus our operation on basic offerings, discontinue all new capital investments and suspend our advertising media spending.”
He added: “We recognise this is a highly dynamic and very concerning situation that we will continue to assess and adjust as needed.”
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