After studying Business Administration, you mainly had positions in the food industry. Why that sector in particular?
“My parents had a clothing store, a kind of Ogre of the East. When I was sixteen I indicated that I had no intention of taking over the company. That was a tough choice, because I would be the fourth generation. I had no interest in clothes at all and found folding my own clothes quite a challenge. I went to study Business Administration, the first in my family to go to the University of Groningen. I enjoyed student life, but I also felt the pressure to perform. After my studies, I started working at Heineken as an intern, later as a marketer for Pepsi, Sisi and 7UP. I learned a lot there, especially about the professionalism of a multinational and my love for emotional brands. I am thinking specifically of brands that mean something to consumers where beer and chocolate are the starting point. Both have emotion intrinsic to the product, with beer for a man being the same as chocolate for a woman.”
How did you end up at Tony's?
“I left Heineken and brought the sustainable smoothie brand Innocent Drinks to the Netherlands, together with a friend. Here I learned how to shape a small brand in a world of large retailers. After about five years I decided to do it myself and started looking for a good company. Tony's Chocolonely had already existed for a number of years and after a number of conversations I was able to take over the company. I started in 2010 and took a majority stake in 2011.”
What is the identity of Tony's Chocolonely?
“The name Tony's Chocolonely represents Teun van de Keuken's lonely struggle to make chocolate slave-free. Tony's was founded in response to a TV broadcast The Value Inspection Service who wanted to expose injustice, in this case in the cocoa industry. We once started with a protest chocolate bar, made on a plantation where there is no child labor and where no slaves work. We now have the ambition to not only set a good example ourselves, but also to act as a guide to a fair future. I believe that every company should think about what its contribution is to our beautiful planet.”
What vision did you embark on this mission with?
“With a company you can make the world a better place, that's where the flame has been lit. Many companies exhaust the world, either the environment or society. Especially when you give back to the environment and society, you build a company where people want to work and where people want to buy a product from. By taking that step, I had found an intersection where the talent and perseverance that I have – because I am a stubborn fool – come together, and then you can make something that consumers want to buy.”
Tony's Chocolonely was founded to solve a social issue. What are the main principles?
“Cocoa must be grown correctly. You must shape a value chain where exploitation and slavery do not take place. Only then can you be proud of the product you make. For the origin, the environment and for the farming family who simply need to be able to take good care of themselves and be paid fairly. I went to Africa and saw what life is like on a cocoa plantation: a small farm and a mud hut where the family lives. Often a few children, aged about ten, are taken to the plantation to work. The family income is on average between 1.100 and 1.300 euros per year. If that doesn't touch you, then you're no good as a person. It is our responsibility to actually put the cocoa grown by these farmers in our bar. Ultimately, my motivation is that pride and then you will see that money is only a means to achieve that goal.”
Are there many other companies now working according to Tony's principles?
“Albert Heijn is already participating. We shape the way Delicata purchases the beans. That is a confidence in our company. They don't have the time and energy to deal with it. We help them via the Tony's Open Chain platform. We want to help other companies make the same impact, because no one wants illegal labor in chocolate. There will be a big new one from September this year missionally bee. It sounds very naive and arrogant, but I believe the ball is rolling. In ten years' time, there will be no chocolate farmer in the world who cannot earn a living income. Then all multinationals buy in a fair way, maybe not 100 percent, but in a much better way.”
This interview is from MASTERS Magazine #50.