Dutch chocolate producer Tony’s Chocolonely saw its sales in the United States almost double in the past financial year, causing worldwide sales to increase by 33 %. However, production in the US is negatively impacting profit margins.
Surpassed sales threshold
In the past financial year (ending in September 2024), Tony’s Chocolonely surpassed the threshold of 200 million euros in sales, marking a record growth of 33 %. That growth was largely driven by the United States, where the fair-trade chocolate producer saw an 86 % increase, and the United Kingdom and Ireland (+ 45 %). On its Dutch home market, there was a 6 % growth, while the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) saw a 27 % increase.
CEO Douglas Lamont points out that two-thirds of the growth came from volume increases, and just one third from price hikes – which he called “unavoidable” due to the significantly rising cocoa prices. However, Tony’s Chocolonely did not pass on all the costs, Lamont emphasizes, which resulted in a slightly larger operating loss of 2.89 million euros. The startup of a production facility for liquid chocolate in the United States further increased the net loss from 2.4 million euros to 6.8 million euros.
New partnerships
Despite these challenges, the company views its long-term strategy of investing in growth as essential. With the threat of high import tariffs from figures like Donald Trump, the American factory could prove even more beneficial than expected. Additionally, the company has added six new partners to its ‘Open Chain’: retailers such as Waitrose and Colruyt are now sourcing fair-trade cocoa through Tony’s collaboration principles. As a result, 17,690 tonnes of traceable cocoa were purchased from 20,296 cocoa farmers, an increase of 19 % compared to the previous year.
Tony’s Chocolonely’s record growth is not only a financial milestone, but also evidence of the scalability of their model for a fairer cocoa industry, the CEO emphasises. The percentage of child labour cases among the affiliated cocoa cooperatives decreased from 4.4 % to 3.9 %, compared to the industry average of 46.7 %. Additionally, no deforestation occurred in the production chain, thanks to GPS monitoring of deforestation risks.
