MPs grill cheese executives

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Kraft has insisted it is "not an arrogant corporation" after its chief executive refused to appear before MPs for the third time in a row to discuss its takeover of Cadbury.

This morning the Commons business, innovation and skills committee took evidence from three senior executives from Kraft on the firm's acquisition of Cadbury.

But MPs were incensed that the firm's CEO, Irene Rosenfeld, had snubbed them for the third time in a row even though they had offered the American the option of appearing via video-link.

MPs launched an inquiry into the takeover last year and the subsequent closure of the Somerdale factory, which the company had pledged to keep open during the merger talks.

The acquisition of an iconic British brand by an American company best known for making processed cheese upset many and these sentiments spilled over into today's session in the Commons.

For the first forty minutes of the two hour hearing MPs interrogated Kraft's executive vice president Marc Firestone as to why they had to talk to him rather than Rosenfeld.

Labour's Adrian Bailey, the chair of the committee, was particularly incensed by Rosenfeld's absence.

"She alone has authority to speak on matters such as growth strategy including whether factories should remain open," he said. "Why should she not be here?"

"At the end of the day it is up to this committee to decide what it wants to talk about."

He added: "This committee may wish to ask questions that only she can answer and she is not here."

And he wondered what the public reaction would be in the United States if a British CEO refused to appear before a Senate hearing.

In a letter to the committee, Firestone had complained that the previous evidence session had gone "far beyond spirited debate to remarkable degree rancour". After only a few minutes it was clear his pleas for an easier ride had been ignored.

Nadhim Zahawi wondered what the point was of them questioning "someone who can't even close a factory" in Britain because he did not have the authority.

The Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon said the Rosenfeld was "a grown up" and asked whether she was "not big enough" to face British parliamentarians.

"Is she big enough to face a committee like us when she faces the analyst community?" he said. "Is she big enough for that?"

He added: "Your brands, for the last forty minutes, have been taking a very negative pasting.

"That’s bad for you because the world out there consumes your brands."

A visibly rattled Firestone suggested that the line of questioning had taken on a personal tone and said he would rather address "the facts" of the merger than the whereabouts of his boss who was a "remarkable executive of enormous talent".

He said there was "very little precedent" for chief executives to appear before either British or American parliamentary inquiries and insisted that the three executives she had dispatched, Trevor Bond, president of markets, Nick Bunker, president of Kraft Foods UK and Ireland and himself, were able to answer the committee's questions.

Defending Rosenfeld he said: "She has tremendous respect for the UK. This transaction is enormously important for Kraft Foods Inc, it's transformational for us".

But Conservative MP Brian Binley told Firestone that Rosenfeld's "persistent non-attendance" would lead the British people and the Cadbury workforce to feel she was not bothered about them.

He noted she had refused to appear before the committee three times, despite the first appearance being scheduled to accommodate her other commitments.

Firestone was eventually given a rest from the aggressive line of questioning and former Cadbury employee Bond stepped in to insist that the newly merged company was "not an arrogant corporation".

And while Binley could barely disguise his distaste for the Kraft man from America, he was decidedly more well-disposed towards the British former Cadbury executive.

"It's a pleasure to talk to a Cadbury man" he told Bond. "I'm a Kraft man now, Mr Binley" he replied.