Tony’s Chocolonely revenue topped €200m for the first time last year, although losses surged as the company weathered volatile cocoa prices.
The chocolate maker’s total revenue grew almost €50m for the year to 30 September, as sales in the US almost doubled to €50.8m.
In the UK and Ireland, sales jumped 45% to €46.5m, leaving it as the company’s third-biggest market. The Netherlands remains the company’s biggest, making up almost a third of total sales.
But the strong growth came amid a tumultuous year for chocolate makers. Cocoa prices hit record highs due to production falls in west Africa that left stocks at their lowest mark in 45 years.
While Tony’s pushed through price hikes to recoup some of the costs, its pre-tax losses consequently rose to €5.5m, up from €3.3m the year before.
CEO Douglas Lamont said to inspire industry-wide change for a fairer cocoa industry, the company must show its business model delivers for shareholders.
“The rapidly increasing net revenue, strong growth in the US and in many of our core European markets, all while delivering a positive EBITDA, shows we are on the right track.” he added.
Lamont said the results showed the company’s sourcing principles could “work at scale and deliver step-change long-term benefits to cocoa farmers and their families” .
As a result of volume growth, Tony’s said more than 20k farmers were benefiting from its sourcing principles, up 14% on the year before.
The number of child labour cases on its farms also fell to less than 4% compared with an industry average of 47%, “giving us confidence there is a pathway to structurally eradicate child labour in the cocoa value chain”, the company said.
Tony’s is committed to five sourcing principles including paying a higher price for cocoa so farmers can earn a living income and promoting strong partner co-operatives to professionalise and make cocoa farming safe and sustainable. It also looks to trade directly with farmers to ensure traceability.
To help sustain growth, Tony’s approved a €20m investment for additional infrastructure at its factory in Belgium last year. The changes will mean it can make up to 25,000 bars an hour.
Tony’s recruited six more ‘Mission Allies’ last year, including Waitrose, Feastables, and Pip & Nut. It brings the total to 20. The initiative supports companies to transform their cocoa supply chains with collective agreements to ensure full traceability of cocoa beans and foster robust co-operatives to enhance the safety of cocoa farming.
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