UPDATE 1-Cadbury lays out share split, sweets unit sweet

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LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) set out plans on Wednesday to split its shares after the demerger of its drinks business, and said a strong start to the year by its confectionary division had not been matched by the drinks unit.

Cadbury (CBRY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) decided to split off its Dr Pepper and 7UP drinks business in March last year but with the credit squeeze hampering its plans for a sale it decided in October to demerge the business and list it in New York.

Cadbury said shareholders with 100 shares in Cadbury Schweppes would get 64 shares in the new Cadbury Plc and 12 in the demerged Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

The Dairy Milk maker said its confectionery business had had a strong start to the year in all regions helped by early Easter egg sales and strong sales of chewing gum.

Last month the firm gave a cautious outlook for the drinks business and said on Wednesday it saw no reason to change that view although that the unit's revenue growth was still in line with expectations.

To counter rising energy and ingredient costs Cadbury added it had raised prices of both its confectionary and its drinks.

(reporting by Marc Jones)