Tony's Chocolonely 5 years!
For five years we have been doing our utmost to make the tastiest chocolate and we are actively working to improve the cocoa chain.
This year, Tony's Chocolonely is celebrating its five-year anniversary. For five years we have been doing our utmost to make the tastiest chocolate and we are actively working to improve the cocoa chain. Yet we are only celebrating a modest party, because there is still a lot to do for Tony's! To give you a better idea of what Tony's Chocolonely is up to and where the money from the bars you buy goes, we will report extensively on our projects and plans in the coming months. But first: a little flashback!
2005 The first Tony's Chocolonely bar is a fact! Teun van de Keuken has 5,000 milk chocolate bars made with the Inspection Service of Value, but that turns out not to be enough. The demand is overwhelming: no fewer than 15,000 are ordered.
2006The year that we registered with the Chamber of Commerce under the name Tony's Factory BV. Hooray, we exist! Meanwhile, Teun van de Keuken can be seen on TV with his slave-free chocolate mission.
2007 The last broadcasts of the Keuringsdienst van Waarde series appear on the TV. This will be followed by an exciting lawsuit against Teun. And: we are launching the world's first Fairtrade chocolate letter!
2008 Reality check. Tony's is getting bigger and we wonder what to do next. What can we really do from the Netherlands? We write an action plan and present it to Oxfam Novib. We are also very happy with the switch from Verkade to Fairtrade. We are even presented with the very first fair trade bar, which still hangs on the wall at Tony's.
2009 Oxfam Novib has decided to support us financially with the Tony in Africa project. A study into how we can improve the chain and therefore get more money to farmers. We travel to Africa, talk to farmers and cooperatives and start writing.
2010 We travel to Africa again and in the autumn of 2010 we submit an extensive report to Oxfam Novib. We recommend a new fair trade settlement model and present it to various organizations to start a pilot in Africa. We are also introducing the hazelnut bar.
2011 Tony's continues! The Waarde Inspection Service is still a loyal friend who occasionally thinks hard (about Easter eggs, for example) and Teun has now handed over his mission to the passionate fair trade expert Eveline for a while now. How do we proceed? In the coming months we will tell you all about our plans, the Tony in Africa project, our dilemmas and... our chocolate on the blog.