One-time Cadbury heiress sells her mansion to fund chocolate venture

It didn’t take long for the British media to dub the move “sweet revenge.” Felicity Loudon announced this week that she had sold her $48-millon mansion in the Cotswolds in order to fund a new chocolate bar venture. The interior decorator and one-time heiress to the Cadbury chocolate empire vowed to use the proceeds to launch a new British chocolate company after shareholders approved an $18.5-billion bid by U.S. food giant Kraft to buy Cadbury in 2010. Although started by her great-great-grandfather, John Cadbury, the chocolate company hasn’t been family owned for 50 years and Loudon, 62, was a minor shareholder. But not one to sugar-coat her words, Loudon called the sale of Cadbury to an American “plastic cheese company” a betrayal of the family honour. She has unveiled few details about her new chocolate venture except that it will be low-cost, “quirky” and above all, British.