In 1879, Richard and George Cadbury moved production to a new factory at Bournville, four miles south of Birmingham. Cadbury’s fortunes took off in the 1850s when the Government reduced the tax on imported cocoa beans, making cocoa and chocolate more affordable. It invests in education and encourages the creation of co-operatives using more environment-friendly pesticides. By contrast, Fairtrade, the organisation which ensures farmers are paid a fair price for their crops, works with only a few thousand farmers in Ghana.ĭespite Fairtrade’s growing popularity among UK consumers - its kitemark on chocolate and coffee products is a sign that suppliers are fairly treated - Cadbury has yet to form a link with it.Ĭadbury claims to have dug 250 wells in Ghana in the last three years. The company draws on 1.5 million smallholder farmers in West Africa. They will gain from us and we will gain from them.”Ĭadbury trumpets the importance of corporate social responsibility while conceding that ensuring good practice persists all the way down to the cocoa growers is a near- impossible task. We like to think that over the years people have come to value the Cadbury quality as well. Most people think of Green & Black’s as a quality organic producer. Neil Machin, Cadbury’s external affairs director, denied that Cadbury was buying Green & Black’s simply to endorse its ethical credentials. Green & Black’s already uses about a third of the world’s organic cocoa. Chocolate bars still make up the biggest part of its business, but it has also expanded into chocolate-flavoured drinks and ice cream as well as biscuits.Īll Green & Black’s products use organically sourced cocoa beans although the company’s massive growth has meant it is fast running out of organically grown cocoa beans, most of which come from Madagascar, Belize and the Dominican Republic. Last year, Green & Black’s sold £22.4 million of chocolate products, mostly in the UK. In the early 1900s, Cadbury shifted cocoa sourcing from Angola, Sâo Tomé and other Portuguese territories to the Gold Coast, now Ghana, because of concerns over the use of slave labour.īut with more than 55,000 employees and a stockmarket value of £10 billion, the modern Cadbury Schweppes empire faces a constant struggle to ensure that sound values run all the way through the organisation.Īlthough Green & Black’s is a London-based business, its chocolate is made by a small family-owned operator near Lake Como, in northern Italy.

“Part of the reason that Green & Black’s feel comfortable with us that we are very committed to ethical business,” a spokeswoman for Cadbury Schweppes said, adding that Mr Kendall and his management team are to remain with the business.Īs Quakers, the Cadbury family championed social equality and an end to poverty. they are buying into what we are doing.” Cadbury Schweppes, which itself has promoted strong social ideals based on its Quaker roots, said it supported Green & Black’s approach and would treat it as a stand-alone business. “They (Cadbury Schweppes) have showed interest because of the ethical trading and the organic buying. Yes, this is a momentous day but it’s a relationship that we have been forging for several years,” he said. “I can see why this question (about selling-out) is on people’s lips because we are a campaigning brand. Mr Kendall, who together with other shareholders has enjoyed a multimillion-pound windfall from the sale, said Green & Black’s would remain a protected brand and had not succumbed to the allure of big business. The fair-trade firm currently outsells luxury chocolatiers such as Lindt in some British markets. Green & Black’s, which promotes sourcing organically-grown cocoa beans on terms that strongly favour growers, was born of the idea of making the Mayan Indians main beneficiaries of their lucrative cocoa crop.Īs a part of the Cadbury Schweppes family, Green & Black’s will now give the mass-market chocolate producer a foothold in more gourmet confectionery, and the chance to enter the highly competitive US market. William Kendall, Green & Black’s chief executive, last night denied that the company was reneging on its pledge to help the native communities which harvest cocoa in Belize’s jungles.

In the deal with Cadbury Schweppes, worth about £20million, the small-scale chocolatier will be absorbed into a global portfolio of mainstream products, from chocolate bars to Dr Pepper soft drinks. Will ethical trader Green & Black’s be forced to swallow its principles along with confectionery giant’s cash?ĪS an organic chocolate company set up to support the Mayan Indians of Belize, Green & Black’s became a byword for ethical and enterprising business.īut last night the firm, which has developed a cult following for its upmarket confectionery, faced accusations of selling out to big business after it agreed to be bought by Cadbury Schweppes.

Green byword