Type Private Products Chocolate bars Founded 29 November 2005 Key person Teun van de Keuken | Industry Confectionery Founder Teun van de Keuken Headquarters Amsterdam, Netherlands | |
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Key people Henk Jan Beltman
(CEO, shareholder)
Teun van de Keuken
(Founder) Website www.tonyschocolonely.com/us/ Motto Crazy about chocolate, serious about people | ||
Tony s chocolonely s new cocoa butter tank in wieze for fully traceable chocolate
Tony's Chocolonely is a confectionery company focused on producing and selling chocolate closely following fair trade practices, strongly opposing slavery and child labour by partnering with trading companies in Ghana and Ivory Coast to buy cocoa beans directly from the farmers, providing them with a fair price for their product and combating exploitation.
Contents
History
In 2002, investigative reporter Teun van de Keuken of the Dutch television show Keuringsdienst van Waarde found that none of the chocolate manufacturers that had signed the Harkin–Engel Protocol was upholding the agreements made in 2001 (producing 'slave-free' chocolate from 2005 on), he decided to take matters into his own hand by recording himself eating 17 bars of chocolate and subsequently taking himself to court for "knowingly purchasing an illegally manufactured product". To make a case against himself, he convinced four former cocoa plantation child slaves from Ivory Coast to testify against him. By 2007, the Dutch attorney general had the case dismissed for being outside their jurisdiction.
When none of the companies he contacted showed any interest in producing chocolate bars made differently, he started manufacturing his own chocolate, and in November introduced a milk chocolate bar made entirely from 'slave-free' cocoa.
On February 6, 2007 a court ruling in Amsterdam officially acknowledged that Tony's Chocolonely chocolate was produced in a slave-free manner. A Dutch importer for Swiss-brand chocolates unsuccessfully sued the team behind Tony's Chocolonely for reputation damage, claiming that "slave-free chocolate is impossible to produce".
When a hazelnut milk chocolate bar was added to the lineup in 2010, Dutch TV show 'Een Vandaag' reported that 9-year-old children participated in the Turkish hazelnut harvest. The company responded by immediately switching to a local hazelnut supplier from The Netherlands. The same year, the market-share of the brand exceeded 4.5 percent in The Netherlands.
In 2011 Henk Jan Beltman became a majority shareholder and moved the company to a new location near Westergasfabriek.
With production steadily increasing, the company decided in 2015 to expand their business to the United States, opening their first international office in Portland, Oregon.
Products
The available flavours of the chocolate bars are:
The company introduces each year, between October and December, three new chocolate bar flavours. The most appreciated of the three limited editions is then added to the permanent collection.