Cadbury cut two months off its supply chain lead time for a key chocolate-bar ingredient in one move

John Phillips | UK Press | Getty ImagesAmerican snack giant Mondelez International is cutting at least two months from its supply-chain lead time for a key ingredient used in Cadbury chocolate. The company opened a $22 million facility in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on Friday to produce chocolate crumb, an ingredient that contributes to the taste and texture of Cadbury's chocolate products, locally rather than importing it from Australia and South Africa. "Producing it directly in Shah Alam removes at least two months from our supply-chain lead time," Nitin Binnani, vice president of customer service and logistics for AMEA at Mondelez International, told CNBC. The new facility will reduce import and transportation costs as it looks to support volume growth across Southeast Asia in the coming years, he said. A bigger role for Southeast Asia Shah Alam is Mondelez's sole Cadbury manufacturing hub for Southeast Asia, producing more than 130 varieties of chocolate and around 100 million bars annually, Binnani said. Cocoa prices have eased after a record-breaking rally over the past two years, which was fueled by adverse weather and poor harvests that drove up costs for chocolate makers, CNBC p...