Tony's Chocolonely shop of AmsterdamTony's Chocolonely milk Tiny
Tony's Chocolonely is a Dutch chocolate company founded in 2005 that produces and sells chocolate.[1] In 2018, the company's market share in the Netherlands was 18 percent, making it one of the country's largest chocolate manufacturers.[2]
In 2003, after discovering that the majority of chocolate produced at the time had links to human exploitation, Dutch television producer and journalistTeun van de Keuken began producing programs about the horrors of the commercial cocoa industry on his show Keuringsdienst van Waarde. Furthermore, he submitted a request to be prosecuted for knowingly purchasing an illegally manufactured product, which prosecutors declined to do.[3]
After three years of unsuccessful attempts to change the industry through investigative efforts, Van de Keuken decided to start producing chocolate bars himself. The brand was called "Tony's Chocolonely" with "Tony" (= Teun) and "Chocolonely" in reference to Teun van de Keuken feeling as if he was the only person in the industry who was interested in eradicating slavery.[4] Van de Keuken sold 20,000 bars in two days.[5]
In 2007, after Tony's was sued by a Dutch importer of Swiss chocolates,[6] a court in Amsterdam ruled that there was sufficient evidence that Tony's products were manufactured without the help of slaves.[7] In the same year, the Dutch Media Authority (Comissariaat voor de Media) found that the excessive advertising Tony's Chocolonely received in seven episodes of Keuringsdienst van Waarde generated "more than normal profits" for the company, and fined the broadcaster of the show €20,000.[8]
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.[9] 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.[10]
In 2011, Henk Jan Beltman became a majority shareholder and moved the company to a new location near Westergasfabriek.
Tony's cocoa mass has been fully traceable since 2013, and its cocoa butter since 2016.[11]
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. They closed their Portland office in 2020 and moved to their current US headquarters in New York, New York.
By the end of 2018, in addition to its home country of The Netherlands, Tony's Chocolonely was also on sale in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the United States.[12] In the Netherlands its market share was 19% in 2018, with which it surpassed multinationalsVerkade, Mars and Nestlé.[13]
In 2019, Tony's launched their chocolate bars in the United Kingdom, with Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Ocado, Mega Image and Whole Foods being some of the first stores to stock their products.[14]
The chocolate bar was made available in Ireland from 2019 in a limited capacity. As of 2020[update], it has become more widely available in leading food stores such as SuperValu.[15]
In 2021, the company received backlash after the American organization Slave Free Chocolate removed Tony's from their list of ethical chocolate companies. While there were no confirmed instances of child labor within Tony's supply chain, their collaboration with another chocolate manufacturer, Barry Callebaut, resulted in Tony's removal from the list due to issues of child labor within Barry Callebaut's supply chain.[16]
In February 2024, Tony’s had launched four new temporary wrappers in Germany and Austria inspired by famous chocolate brands, including Milka, as an advertising campaign and to raise awareness around the use of child labour by major suppliers in the cocoa industry.[17] After being sued by Milka-manufacturer Mondelez International it was banned from selling chocolate "using the colour purple" in Germany.[18]
Products
The number of available bar flavors varies by country and distribution channel. For example, over a dozen flavors are available in the Netherlands.[19] The chocolate bars are unevenly divided, symbolizing the unequal distribution of incomes in the chocolate industry.[20]
An unwrapped Tony's Chocolonely milk chocolate bar.
In the United States, the available flavors of the chocolate bars are (in order of introduction):[21]
Milk chocolate 32%
Extra dark chocolate 70%
Milk caramel sea salt 32%
Dark almond sea salt 51%
Dark milk pretzel toffee 42%
Dark pecan coconut 51%
Milk hazelnut 32%
Milk honey almond nougat 32%
White raspberry popping candy 28%
While types of products vary in a similar fashion to flavor count, most regions have:
Large bars (180 grams)
Small bars (50 grams)
Tiny Tony's (9 grams)
Seasonal items (including holiday bars and chocolate Easter eggs)
The company introduces three new chocolate bar flavors each year between October and December. The most popular of the three limited editions is then added to the exclusive collection, and sometimes the permanent collection.[22] The company also produces limited edition 'relay' bars for the supermarket chain Albert Heijn, with exclusive flavors corresponding to winter and summer tastes. These flavors rotate every six months. Some bars have entered the permanent collection from there.[citation needed]
Awards
In 2020, the company was named the most sustainable brand in the Netherlands for the third time by the Sustainable Brand Index.[23] However, this award does not measure brands' actual sustainability but consumers' perceptions of it.[24]
In 2022, the Thomson Reuters Foundation awarded Tony's Chocolonely the Stop Slavery Award in the category "Goods and Services Companies".[25] This award recognizes companies and organizations who have set a high standard for eradicating slavery, illegal child labor, and human trafficking from their supply chains.[26]
Tony's Chocolonely was ranked second on the 2023 Chocolate Scorecard, which rates chocolate companies according to their human rights and environmental credentials: traceability and transparency, living income for cocoa farmers, child labour (absence of), deforestation & climate, agroforestry, and agrochemical management.[27]
Related Research Articles
Chocolate or cocoa is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form for at least 5,300 years starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador and later Mesoamerican civilizations also consumed chocolate beverages before being introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
Nutella is a brand of brown, sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread. Nutella is manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero and was introduced in 1964, although its first iteration dates to 1963.
The cocoa bean or simply cocoa, also called cacao, is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao, the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter can be extracted. Cocoa trees are native to the Amazon rainforest. They are the basis of chocolate and Mesoamerican foods including tejate, an indigenous Mexican drink.
The Hershey Company, often called just Hershey or Hershey's, is an American multinational confectionery company headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States, which is also home to Hersheypark and Hershey's Chocolate World. The Hershey Company is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world; it also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milkshakes, as well as other products. The Hershey Company was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 as the Hershey Chocolate Company, originally established as a subsidiary of his Lancaster Caramel Company. The Hershey Trust Company owns a minority stake but retains a majority of the voting power within the company.
A chocolate bar is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily breakable, chocolate bar is also called a tablet. In some varieties of English and food labeling standards, the term chocolate bar is reserved for bars of solid chocolate, with candy bar used for products with additional ingredients.
Ferrero Rocher is a chocolate and hazelnut confectionery produced by the Italian company Ferrero. Michele Ferrero is credited as the product's creator.
Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of bars, tablets and other confectionery products. Milk chocolate contains smaller amounts of cocoa solids than do dark chocolates, and contains milk solids. While its taste has been key to its popularity, milk chocolate was historically promoted as a healthy food, particularly for children.
Kit Kat is a chocolate-covered wafer bar confection created by Rowntree's of York, United Kingdom. It is produced globally by Nestlé, except in the United States, where it is made under licence by the H. B. Reese Candy Company, a division of the Hershey Company.
Loacker S.p.A. is an Italian confectionery company, based in South Tyrol, Italy and specialized in the production of wafers, chocolate and derivative products.
Special K is an American brand of breakfast cereal and meal bars originally manufactured by Kellogg's. The cereal was introduced to the United States in 1955. It is made primarily from grains such as lightly toasted rice, wheat and barley. Special K used to be marketed primarily as a low-fat cereal that can be eaten to help one lose weight. Following the 2023 spinoff of Kellogg's North American cereal division, the cereal is manufactured by WK Kellogg Co for the United States, Canada, and Caribbean markets. The former Kellogg's, renamed Kellanova, continues to manufacture the cereal for the rest of the world and the meal bars for all markets.
Ritter Sport is a brand of chocolate bar from the family-owned Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG, which has its headquarters in Waldenbuch, Germany.
Milka is a Swiss brand of chocolate confectionery. Originally made in Switzerland in 1901 by Suchard, it has been produced in Lörrach, Germany, from 1901. Since 2012 it has been owned by US-based company Mondelez International, when it started following the steps of its predecessor Kraft Foods Inc., which had taken over the brand in 1990. It is sold in bars and a number of novelty shapes for Easter and Christmas. Products with the Milka brand also include chocolate-covered cookies and biscuits.
Chocolate is a food product made from roasted and ground cocoa pods mixed with fat and powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified primarily according to the proportion of cocoa and fat content used in a particular formulation.
Swiss chocolate is chocolate produced in Switzerland. While cacao beans and other ingredients, such as sugar cane, originate from outside Switzerland, the actual production of the chocolate must take place in Switzerland. Switzerland's chocolates have earned an international reputation for high quality with many famous international chocolate brands.
Gianduia or gianduja is a homogeneous blend of chocolate with 30% hazelnut paste, invented in Turin during Napoleon's regency (1796–1814). It can be consumed in the form of bars or as a filling for chocolates.
Eurocrem is a brand of two-colored hazelnut- and cocoa-flavored sweet milk chocolate spread, produced by a Swisslion Group factory in Gornji Milanovac, Serbia, about 120 kilometres south of Belgrade.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
Crunch is a chocolate bar made of milk chocolate and crisped rice. It is produced globally by Nestlé with the exception of the United States, where it is produced under license by the Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero.
Mondelez International, Inc., styled as Mondelēz International, is an American multinational confectionery, food, holding, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual revenue of about $26.5 billion and operates in approximately 160 countries. It ranked No. 108 in the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Teun van de Keuken is a Dutch producer of television and radio programs who established a reputation investigating fair trade and production practices in the food industry; he founded the chocolate company Tony's Chocolonely. He debuted in 2017 as a novelist.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
