Cadbury

Coca-Cola Co. on Monday bowed to European regulators and agreed to scale down its proposed purchase of drink brands from Britain's Cadbury Schweppes. The world's largest soft-drink maker will now pay $1.1 billion for Cadbury brands such as Dr Pepper, Crush, Canada Dry and Schweppes in about 100 nations, after dropping European markets including Germany, Italy and Spain from the deal. The price is 40% less than the $1.85 billion reached in December involving more than 120 nations outside the U.S.

Remember the "Uncola" commercials of the 1970s that 7 Up used to cleverly differentiate its lemon-lime soft drink from cola clones Pepsi and Coke? That's the problem facing 7 Up, the soft drink brand that's now owned by England's Cadbury Schweppes. In an industry where youthful consumers dominate sales, too many of the soft drink's fans are old enough to remember the popular television ad campaign's lilting island cadence and actor Geoffrey Holder's enchanting voice-overs.

Chocolate Wars The 150-year Rivalry Between the World's Greatest Chocolate Makers Deborah Cadbury PublicAffairs: 350 pp., $27.95

Allied-Lyons North America Corp. has named William I. Savel president and chief executive of Baskin-Robbins Inc., Glendale, the world's largest franchised ice cream operation and a wholly owned subsidiary of Allied-Lyons PLC. Previously, Savel was president of Peter Paul Cadbury USA, a subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes Inc.