Give a brief history of Darling's Chocolate plc and explain why Colonel Darling chose a sole proprietorship to start his business.

In 1933 a retired army colonel Joshua Darling returned to Liverpool, the city he was born in, from India where he used to serve. In Liverpool the Colonel intended to open a chocolate factory. J. Darling interviewed the candidates for being employed in his business himself to be sure they would meet all his requirements concerning experience, skills, attitude to work, traits of character, etc. He interviewed over forty people but hired only about 20 employees, because his type of business at the very beginning was a sole-proprietorship. The founder chose this type for his business as it didn’t demand complicated formal procedures to be founded, the colonel could have personal contacts with staff and customers, could make independent decisions and didn’t have to share profits with anybody. If the business went up or not depended just on Darling. The competitive point of Darling’s business was the highest quality of the chocolate. It was made only from the finest ingredients and initially it was made by hand. As the factory produced high-quality chocolate, its target audience was upper market. Therefore, the production wasn’t cheap.

In 1934 his daughter Alice married a businessman Mr. Windbourne. Several years passed, the factory needed expansion. So he invited Mr. Windbourne to be his partner. Then Alice’s husband joined the chocolate factory and the business was turned into general partnership in 1940.

In the 1950^th they started export campaign to penetrate overseas markets. The most popular brand, exported to Europe, Australia and South America, was “The Colonel’s Choice”.

Further more Darling wanted to avoid difficult legal procedures of inheritance in the event of his death. Also the popularity of Darlings’ chocolates was growing very fast. Due to all of these reasons the partnership was reorganized into private limited company. In 1955 Alice finally joined the company. He died in 1963 and she became the new majority share-holder.

In the 1960^th the prices for raw materials considerably increased due to the poor harvest of cocoa beans and sugar. The company needed more assets, in fact in 1964 it was changed into public limited company to be able to appeal to the public for extra funds. Mrs. Alice Windbourne sold 40% of shares on the stock-exchange, the company “Fountain Foods” bought of 39%. She retained the controlling interest as she kept 51%. In 1983, the company celebrated its golden jubilee.

But by 1983 Darlings had been loosing their profits for many years. They needed extra investments but it was difficult for the company that was not profitable to find good investors. But at that time Fountain Foods made the company an offer to sell them 30 more per cent of Darling’s shares. The offer contained several attractive points so the deal between Fountain Foods and Darlings was signed.

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