07/04/2017 Midlands Today

Seven years after their controversial take-over of Cadbury,

the American food giant Kraft has today announced plans for a

a multi-million pound investment at their Birmingham plant.

Now renamed Mondelez International, bosses say it's an investment

New state-of-the-art production lines at Bournville

will help boost efficiency, and ensure the factory

Here's our business correspondent, Peter Plisner.

Cadbury workers protesting back in 2009 against the Kraft takeover.

Their main concern was the future of Bournville, a site that's made

But far from winding it down the factory has just got

a ?75 million boost with these ultra-modern production lines.

It means that daily output at Bournville has now increased

to over a million Creme Eggs, five million bars of chocolate

and a staggering 400 million chocolate buttons.

The boss of Mondelez maintains it's a long-term investment.

We've invested ?200 million overall in the UK, ?75

For employees, some of whom have worked here for many years,

securing this investment was not always easy.

Documents leaked to the media talked of some workers

being railroaded into redundancy, with talks being confrontational

and briefings being inconcise and information far from transparent.

Almost 240 people have left Bournville as a result

of the new production lines - unions say it's been a tough

Now that we are increasing our efficiencies, it makes

us more competitive, so when we get new models

or new varieties of different chocolate that come out,

we will be up there in the pecking order to try and gain some

The changes have also left some buildings at Bournville empty and,

according to Modelez, that could mean additional space

for its highly popular chocolate attraction,

Part of the Cadbury World attraction is an insight into manufacturing,

and we want to make sure that's part of the experience in the long term

and we are looking at plans in that space at the moment.

Proud too of the investment at Bournville, which also includes

a further ?6 million to set up a Centre for Chocolate Exellence -

the company's global research headquarters.

Peter Plisner, BBC Midlands Today, at Cadburys.

600 jobs are at risk in the Black Country tonight

following the announcement that the 2 Sisters Food Group

could cease production at their poultry processing

The company says it understands the impact the closure could have

and will offer up to 200 permanent roles at their other

Police are tonight searching for a nine-year-old girl who's gone

Danni Purser, who was reported missing just before 6pm this

evening, was last seen walking towards Stanton Lacy,

Officers are keen to identify a man seen walking in that area

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder,

following a stabbing near a tram stop in Birmingham.

It's a week now since 57-year-old Anthony Banting

was stabbed several times after getting off a tram

Lindsay, what's been happening today?

This afternoon, Anthony Banting toss four sons came to lay floral

tributes at the spot where their father died a week ago. Earlier in

the week, they released a statement, describing their father as a simple

man who loved spending time with his boys. He had been on his way to meet

one of his sons at a nearby park when the attack happened last week.

Are the police any nearer to understanding why this happened and

who did this? There is a latest development, and I can tell you that

the police have arrested a man in his 20s, thought to be from the

local Winston green area, though they are stressing this is just one

line of enquiry they are following. There are numerous lines

of enquiries ongoing, and we still would like to speak

to anybody that might have been in this area of Benson Road

between four o'clock and five o'clock on Friday, or anyone that

may have help for them identifying the individual

that we've circulated. British Transport Police have

released CCTV footage of a man they are keen to speak to. This

afternoon, they were stopping motorists, passers-by, and talking

to people using the metro network. Tonight, police are saying they

still believe this was a random attack. They do not believe that

Anthony Banting knew his killer. The Trust which runs

Worcestershire's hospitals turned away more ambulances this winter

than any other in England, bar one. Figures from the Nuffield Trust show

the organisation closed its doors making it the second worst

performing in the country. We do these things to make sure

that patients are safe in the system, so we don't agree

to diverts lightly. We are consulted when diverts

are requested and, if we think it's unsafe for patients,

we will raise that as a concern. A Birmingham mosque has been praised

for its generosity after raising a record ?1.2 million to supply

bread to starving Syrian refugees. An appeal was launched after staff

from Green Lane Mosque in Small Heath travelled to refugee

camps on a fact-finding mission. The money, raised in just eight

months, will provide There have been two Premiership

rugby matches tonight and, despite losing 36-26 at Sale,

Worcester Warriors did pick up a much-needed bonus point

in their fight against relegation. After the home side had

taken an early lead, Francois Hougaard grabbed the first

of four tries for Worcester, who have now opened up a ten-point

advantage over the bottom club, In the other game, Gloucester have

gone down 16-14 at Newcastle. I'll leave you now with

the weather from Rebecca Wood. It's certainly been

a pleasant day today. We started with some cloud,

the sun desperately trying to break through,

and it did for many spots. We got some glorious blue skies,

with temperatures responding nicely. More of the same to come as we head

through this weekend. Meanwhile, temperatures

are going to fall away. It will be a chilly

night for some spots. In some sheltered spots,

we could see temperatures touching close to freezing,

so we could get a bit of grass frost, particularly

across parts of Herefordshire. Further inland, we should manage

to stay up a little higher than that, but a chilly start

for many tomorrow, but the high pressure has

shifted ever so slightly. It starts to bring up much milder

air through the day tomorrow, so it will be a fine and dry start

to the day. We'll be left with lots of lovely

sunshine and much milder air Temperatures up into

the mid-to-high teens. There is more information on that

in the national forecast. I'll leave you with an outlook

for the next few days. Monday, and north-westerly wind will

drag in