Tony's Chocolonely

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 action himself 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. The name of the company is derived from the fact that he created the business by himself, without any help from the already existing chocolate industry.

On February 6, 2007, a court ruling in Amsterdam officially acknowledged that Tony's Chocolonely chocolate was produced in a slave-free manner.[2] A Dutch importer for Swiss-brand chocolates unsuccessfully sued the team behind Tony's Chocolonely for reputation damage.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

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 the cocoa butter since 2016.[6]

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.

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.[7] In the Netherlands its market share was 19% in 2018, with which it surpassed multinationals Verkade, Mars and Nestlé.[8]

In 2019 Tony's launched their chocolate bars in the United Kingdom and Romania, with Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Ocado, Mega Image and Whole Foods being some of the first stores to stock their products.[9]

The chocolate bar was made available in Ireland from 2019 in a limited capacity. As of 2020, it has become more widely available in leading food stores such as Supervalu.[10]

The number of available bar flavors varies by country and distribution channel. For example, over a dozen flavors are available in the Netherlands.[11] The chocolate bars are unevenly divided, symbolizing the inequal distribution of incomes in the chocolate industry.[12]

An unwrapped Tony's Chocolonely milk chocolate bar.

In the United States, the available flavors of the chocolate bars are (in descending order by time available):[13]

• 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)

Items unavailable outside of Europe include:

• Personalized chocolate bars
• Chocolate milk
• Chocolate letters

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.[14] 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.

• In 2020, the company was named the most sustainable brand in the Netherlands for the third time by the Sustainable Brand Index.[15]