LONDON--GolinHarris has been appointed to handle PR duties for iconic chocolate brand Cadbury, in one of the UK's biggest consumer reviews of the year.

Cadbury's communications team made the decison following a competitive pitch that featured PR firms from parent company Mondelez's UK roster: Cake, Hill + Knowlton Strategies, JCPR Edelman and Pretty Green.

The shift of the lucrative six-figure account will come as a painful blow for Pretty Green, which has handled a considerable amount of Cadbury work since it launched three years ago, including the chocolate brand's successful Olympic sponsorship programme.

GolinHarris will work across the Cadbury business, including Cadbury Dairy Milk, Wispa, Crispello and Roses. The consolidation marks the first time that a single agency has worked across the portfolio.

"We are an agency full of chocoholics so the chance to work for the nation’s most loved chocolate brand is a dream come true," said GolinHarris deputy MD Bibi Hilton. "We are excited about putting in place a new ‘always- on’ strategy for Cadbury and delivering bold creative campaigns to remind consumers and media how much they love this iconic brand.”

GolinHarris has worked on the Kraft roster since 2007. Kraft bought Cadbury for $19.6bn in 2010, before the food giant spun off its snack food business under the Mondelez brand earlier this year.

Last year, the Holmes Report revealed that Kraft was reviewing its £6m UK PR roster, eventually settling on a lineup that featured Cadbury firm Pretty Green; Kraft agencies GolinHarris and Hill + Knowlton Strategies; and new entrants Cake and JCPR Edelman.

“Cadbury is an iconic brand and we’ve been voted the nation’s favourite for the last two years running, so we know our products are close to consumers’ hearts," said Cadbury activation director Matthew Williams.

"2013 is going to be an exciting year for us, packed full of new product launches and magical marketing campaigns. We look forward to working with GolinHarris to create and deliver some high-impact PR activity.”

Cadbury currently accounts for 29 percent of the UK chocolate market, an increase of 0.2 percent on 2011, according to Nielsen data.