Tony’s Chocolonely’s annual FAIR report shows key global growth
Reis Ghana, van 23 tot 27 januari 2017
Dutch-headquartered Tony’s Chocolonely ethical impact chocolate company has released its annual FAIR report, revealing 24% global business growth, as well as making key sustainability gains, reports Neill Barston.
As the company noted, it crossed the €100 million revenue mark for the first time, attaining progress against its core goal of supporting key communities within the cocoa processing value chain serving the confectionery industry.
Notably, its engagement work brought a positive impact for a total of 8,921 farmers, with the company delivering an 87% increase in cocoa bought through its open chain system designed to provide frontline industry workers in key markets with greater financial renumeration.
Under this industry-led initiative, Tony’s enables other brands to make chocolate using its five Sourcing Principles. Mission allies Albert Heijn, ALDI, Jokolade and Vly Foods collectively increased the beans sourced via Tony’s Open Chain by more than 237%. This means that 22% of chocolate bars in the Netherlands (based on revenue share) are made according to Tony’s 5 Sourcing Principles.
As Tony’s noted, net revenues rose from €88.4 million to €109.6 million for the past year. Gross margin also exceeded target and increased from 42.4% to 46.2%, with the company continuing to place a renewed spotlight on gaining consumer awareness of global issue awareness of illegal child labor and related issues of modern slavery.
“For us, reaching these milestones is not only proof that we are heading in the right direction, but confirmation that we’ve entered a new era of Tony’s Chocolonely, taking our mission to the next level on the global stage,” says Henk Jan Beltman, Chief Chocolate Officer (CEO) at Tony’s Chocolonely.
In regards to tackling child labour, the company saw a 67% increase in remediated child labor cases, managed through Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS), the company tackled 366 individual incidents of minors working in industry within the past year.
As the company noted, its track record of remediating child labor cases is also reflected in the low prevalence of child labour at its long-term partners, at 3.9% (versus the industry average of 50%). Tony’s ambition remains to eradicate child labour and modern slavery completely – not just their chocolate, but all chocolate worldwide.
The reality is, with Tony’s growth in sales and consequently, more cooperatives are onboarded each year. With every new cooperative onboarded, new cases of illegal child labor are identified. This year Tony’s onboarded two new co-ops and found 1,701 cases of child labor, which Tony’s is now working on remediating.
Paul Schoenmakers, Head of Impact at Tony’s Chocolonely, says: “Finding cases is the only way to resolve them. We take responsibility and remediate every child labor case we find, rather than look the other way. Change is a process, and the stark difference in rates of prevalence shows that we’re on the right track.”
Shift in focus: FY21/22
In line with a shift in focus on international expansion and on the ground impact, Tony’s has decided not to continue the build of its own chocolate factory: Tony’s Chocolonely Chocolate Circus (TCCC) in Zaandam, the Netherlands. Instead, the company plans to reinvest the capital requirements of this site into growing global brand and issue awareness, driving team expansion with more local expertise in the markets, and most importantly, creating impact on the ground with cocoa farmers.
Tony’s acquired the Althea de Laet factory in 2021 – the Belgian choco-molding and Fairtrade experts who we partnered with since day 1. The expenses of the acquisition, together with a few other exceptional one-off costs, including the Tony’s Chocolonely Chocolate Circus, were absorbed into the company results – meaning that Tony’s saw a loss of -4.3%. Important to note is that, without these one-off expenses and depreciations, the chocolate business remains profitable (with a net profit of ~1%).
Jan Huij, Chief Financial Officer says: “In the coming year, we are doubling down on driving brand and issue awareness globally as well as accelerating growth in our international markets – ultimately creating more impact on the ground in West Africa. Due to the pivot in strategy, we have decided not to continue the build of Tony’s Chocolonely Chocolate Circus. We believe it’s the right decision to help take our growth and impact to the next level to achieve our mission.”
