YES, if you heard that Tony’s works with You-Know-Who you heard right!
For starters, we’d like to set the record straight: it’s no secret that Barry Callebaut has come under fire in the past for things we, Tony’s, condemn, e.g. negligence and human rights infringements in their supply chain. As such, there are plenty of sceptics out there who believe we shouldn’t partner with them. While we recognize this gut reaction comes from a good place, we must reiterate our perspective:
At Tony’s, we exist so make all chocolate 100% slave-free, not just our own. That means climbing into the lion’s den and tackling change from within. It means getting to the root of the problem and paving the way for others by proving the scalability of our solutions.
So you see, dear Choco Fans, it’s not only good but actually vital that we team up with the likes of Barry Callebaut & co. Still have questions or concerns? Here are 3 bite-sized facts to chew on:
1. Our beans are fully segregated from other choco brands’ beans at Barry Callebaut
To make this possible, we pay more than all the other choco brands at Barry Callebaut’s processing facilities to have our very own storage vessels and production lanes onsite. That means we’re in full control of our supply chain from start to finish. Plus, we get to show everyone else how these things are done well and done right.
Make no mistake — we may be shacking up under the same roof, but our beans never ever come in contact with any other choco brands’ beans whatsoever.
2. Our beans are 100% traceable
We always know exactly who harvested our beans and how they were processed. As such we know how much premium to pay each farmer and can remediate any cases of child labor that occur. At Tony’s, it's bean-to-bar with every bite.
Here's a snapshot of us beaming with pride:
3. And ‘cause we can’t emphasize it enough: This partnership brings us that much closer to our vision of making 100% slave free the norm in chocolate
Since Barry Callebaut is one of the biggest cocoa processors in the world, making use of their facilities was a no brainer for us. Setting up shop right beside Big Choco means that we’re able to prove first-hand that it is possible to be processing substantial volumes of cocoa beans and still be 100% traceable and slave free. And so, we continue to scale up our production globally and grow Tony’s Open Chain.
With companies like Albert Heijn, ALDI, Jokolade and Vly Foods as our Mission Allies, we’re confident that we’re on the right track and intent on inspiring even more big chocolate companies to adopt our 5 Sourcing Principles. Because showing them how it’s done and changing the industry from within still seems to be the only real way to get (good) things done around here.