Ken Hanna, Cadbury's chief financial officer who oversaw the demerger of the confectionery giant from its US soft drinks business, will step down after five years with the company.

Mr Hanna, 55, will leave Cadbury in April next year after joining in 2004. He will become chairman of Inchcape, the UK car dealer where he has been a non-executive director since 2001.

Mr Hanna is replacing Peter Johnson, who announced he was resigning as Inchcape's chairman earlier this year.

In July, Inchcape warned that its profit for the year will be wiped out because of a slowdown in consumer demand for new vehicles.

During his career at Cadbury, Mr Hanna worked closely with Todd Stitzer, the company's chief executive, to steer a difficult plan to separate the confectionery and drinks operations.

Almost a year ago to the day, the company was forced to abandon the £6.5 billion sale of its US soft drinks arm after becoming one of the first high-profile victims of the credit crunch when potential private equity buyers were unable to secure enough debt for the deal.

Last August, as the credit crunch began to grip global financial markets, Mr Hanna, who had worked in private equity at Compass Partners, said conditions were more severe than after September 11, 2001.

He added: "It's very difficult or impossible for buyers to get access to the debt markets. It looks like severe indigestion."

Roger Carr, chairman of Cadbury, said today: "On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Ken for the outstanding contribution he has made to the group as chief financial officer.

"He has played a central role as we have radically restructured the business both from an operations and a portfolio perspective."

Cadbury has begun a search for Mr Hanna's replacement.

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