Description of Business

People capabilities

Learning and development

Our People Strategy sets out our commitment to ensuring all employees realise their full potential. In 2005, Group-wide learning and development activity focused on rolling out our Building Commercial Capabilities programme with 1000 managers taking part. The aim of the programme is to improve commercial decision-making, and marketing and sales expertise by defining a common Cadbury Schweppes way of marketing and selling. We have also developed a bespoke Cadbury Schweppes people management training programme called Passion for People for roll-out starting in 2006. The training seeks to teach newcomers our particular approach to managing people and refresh it with existing employees.

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Employee communication and involvement

Employee communication and engagement continued to grow in 2005 with all areas of the business introducing enhanced communication structures and programmes. Through our subsidiaries, we have successfully entered into numerous collective bargaining agreements. Our management has no reason to believe that it would not be able to renegotiate any such agreements on satisfactory terms.

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Employee share ownership

Share ownership among all our employees is actively encouraged. Employees in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and the UK and US have access to all-employee share plan arrangements which involve participation on favourable terms. Overall, around 40% of all eligible employees choose to participate, and invitations to participate are generally communicated each year.

Details of stock option plans available to employees are provided in Note 26 to the Financial Statements. The stock option schemes are being reviewed in 2006, but the principle of employee share ownership will continue.

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Equal employment opportunities, diversity and inclusiveness

Diversity plays a crucial role in enabling us to stay relevant to customers and consumers. Our objective is to employ regardless of race, colour, ethnic or national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, marital status or disability. This objective is embedded in our Group-wide Equal Employment Opportunities and Diversity Policy. The Board and the Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee monitors procedures and progress and we use training, workshops, induction, and in some cases Diversity Committees, to ensure that we share best practice and celebrate diversity. A newly formed global diversity and inclusiveness team, led by a member of the Chief Executive's Committee is steering the development of new policies and activities to increase awareness and focus on workforce diversity and workplace inclusiveness. We track and monitor gender diversity within management, the executive population and across the total workplace, and the range of nationalities at senior levels.

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People with disabilities

We employ people with disabilities, though not all are formally registered as disabled in UK terms. If an employee becomes disabled, we aim wherever possible to offer an alternative job, with retraining if necessary. Training, career development and promotion opportunities for people with disabilities are consistent with our Group-wide Equal Employment Opportunities and Diversity Policy.

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Health and well-being

We provide a number of health and well-being programmes for employees at business unit level, ranging from employee nutrition and health education through to whole-family health management schemes. The programmes include the provision of nutrition-focused on-site cafeterias: hygiene and health management education: subsidised activity facilities on or off-site: organised sporting and social activities: and a range of courses and counselling on matters such as work-life management, relaxation and stress management, managing weight change and reducing smoking or drinking. A large number of business units have medical facilities for basic health and safety requirements. In addition many offer employees medicals of one kind or another to give an indication of fitness to work. Guiding principles for such employee wellbeing schemes were introduced in 2005 following a review in 2004, to inform their further development and the introduction of new facilities and programmes.

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Pensions

The Group seeks to offer retirement benefits to employees in line with local competitive market practice, as well as being consistent with guiding principles established by the Group's International Employee Benefits Action Group (IEBAG).

IEBAG consists of senior representatives from Finance, Treasury, Risk Management and HR (including one main board member, the Chief Human Resources Officer), and was established to review and oversee governance across the Group's UK and overseas retirement and related benefit arrangements and provide a structure to approve and facilitate changes to such arrangements in the areas of governance, plan design, financing, and accounting.

During 2005, IEBAG has been involved in the Group's responses to changes in international accounting standards, benefits redesign arising from UK Pensions Simplification and the implications of the UK Pension Act 2004. In addition, IEBAG has considered changes impacting its retirement and related benefit arrangements outside the UK, in particular in countries affected by the integration of the Adams businesses. Such arrangements are a mixture of defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

Details on Group pension arrangements are provided in Note 25 to the Financial Statements.