Brand Watch - Tony's Chocolonely
Recently a new, brightly coloured chocolate brand has started appearing. First in small style-conscious cafes and delicatessens, lately in supermarkets like Sainsburys and Waitrose. Maybe you have noticed it? I pay attention to anything new in the confectionary market, so I have tried it out and its pretty good, but I’m left wondering – who is Tony? And why has he suddenly started making chocolate?
A quick check on the back shows that it is actually a Dutch brand, headquartered in Amsterdam, and Tony is former investigative reporter Teun van de Keuken. Back in the early 2000’s, Teun discovered that the chocolate world was not such a sweet place, beset with child and slave labour and paying farmers so pitifully that they struggled to survive. He was particularly incensed that a US voluntary agreement that had been struck with the chocolate industry to eliminate the terrible conditions was not being honoured. The solution? He decided raise awareness of the issue by suing himself, on the basis that he had “knowingly purchased an illegally manufactured product”, having first eaten 17 bars of an offending brand.
Enlisting the testimony of four former child slaves from the Ivory Coast to make the case against himself, he was thwarted in the end by the Dutch judge who declared it outside his jurisdiction. Teun’s subsequent pressure on the big chocolate companies to comply with the agreement failed and so in 2005 he decided to set up his own chocolate manufacturing company, named after himself in recognition of its independence and its stand against the worst practises of the industry.
Most of the cocoa used in our chocolate, some 60%, comes from Ghana and the Ivory Coast where the average cocoa farmer earns just 78 cents per day. Over two million children are estimated to work in the industry and around 30,000 people are thought to be victims of modern slavery, forced to work for no wages. Fluctuating crop prices tend to lead to bigger profits for the chocolate makers rather than the farmers so Tony’s set about ensuring a fair price for their cocoa, typically paying some 20% above the farm gate price and guaranteeing five years trade with each deal so as to provide stability. They also ensure all their beans are traceable so that slavery and child labour is eliminated from their supply chain, getting independent verification along the way to ensure compliance.
It's not a preachy brand feel though, there is humour there from the friendly Scooby-Doo style 70’s graphics and bright colours, to the informal tone of their language and rather brilliant website. The bars themselves have an unusual portion arrangement with a mix of different sized pieces representing the inequality of the chocolate industry itself. And its successful too, outselling Mars and Nestle in the Netherlands and available in nine countries to date.
Meanwhile the industry agreement that so angered Teun and made him start his chocolate enterprise is still waiting to be honoured. Originally the aim was to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in cocoa production by 2005. This was extended to 2008 then 2010 and then 2015. 2020 is the latest date set to try and reduce child labour in Ghana and Ivory Coast by 70%. That’s not 100%, merely 70% and it’s proving remarkably difficult.
Given the current focus on historical slavery it is interesting that Tony’s Chocolonely have not chosen to make capital out of the situation but instead allowed people to draw their own parallels. Will we make the connection between our love of cheap and oversized treats with the terrible treatment of our neighbours in West Africa? It remains to be seen. But if you have seen Tony’s chocolate around and thought it a bit on the expensive side, now you know why.