Menu
“Together we’ll make chocolate slave free” is the Tony’s Chocolonely motto, and while their impressive mission is most certainly admirable, it’s important to note how things have changed over the last three years.
When we first worked with Tony’s Chocolonely in 2020, the paper and foil wrapped bars were available to us and weren’t found in many other shops. These were an astounding success for Zero, with 1000 bars sold in the run up to Christmas. It’s undeniably great tasting chocolate. This brought us new customers and of course it’s brilliant to see an ethical brand becoming more sought after. Over the next 12 months we started to see the bars feature in more larger retailers. People would sometimes question how they were £3.50 in Sainsbury’s for example vs. our £4.00. The answer is simple: economies of scale. Supermarkets can commit to tens of thousands of a certain product, and get the discounts to go with. As a tiny retailer we simply can’t compete with this, and we’ve noticed the RRP drop further still (even cheaper than we can buy the bars in some cases!). It’s natural for people to compare, but felt bad we couldn’t offer anywhere near the same price for the exact same products. Even the limited editon bars were becoming available in supermarkets, as well as the advent calendars which were also very popular when we first stocked them.
I started to think perhaps the time is right to go back to basics and a smaller chocolate supplier once more.
In terms of cocoa sourcing and palm oil, Tony’s have maintained an excellent record. As they’ve grown, they have undoubtedly had a positive impact on the farmers they buy their cocoa from, by paying more and creating awareness within the industry. Undoubtedly it’s better for someone to choose Tony’s over the likes of Nestle or Mondelez, who are well known for slavery in their supply chains and giving farmers the smallest cut possible.
One thing we have noticed, is the lack of vegan options with Tony’s. Whilst we aren’t and will never be a 100% vegan shop, we prefer the vegan options to outweigh the dairy ones, and are always looking for brands who can pioneer delicious dairy free products such as our raw chocolate vanoffee cashews or dark chocolate honeycomb. It seemed that innovation in vegan flavours for Tony’s was not a priority, nor is their much information on the sourcing of their dairy ingredients available (as noted by Ethical Consumer).
Yes the large bars continue to be plastic free with readily recycable wrappers. Super. However, we found that subsequent product releases, whilst plastic free, contained paper and foil glued in layers, rendering them non-recyclable. Not to mention the advent calendars are quite ludrious in size for the amount of chocolate…something which as a zero waste shop we feel no longer represents us.
So what now? Well, we’ve started to stock the fantastic creamy Hipp Organic and Happi Chocolate oat milk range (their salted caramel and Christmas offerings are frankly incredible), alongside a brand completely new to us and very much lesser known than Tony’s.
Up Up are a UK based brand with a very short supply chain compated to the industry norm (plantation, processing, factory). Up Up use cocoa sourced from the North Eastern region of Columbia. They are working in partnership with Slave Free Trade to actively encourage everyone in their chain to assess their working conditions against interntational human rights law, on a quarterly basis. No slavery, full traceability and delicious chocolate.
We hope this post fully explains the reasons behind the changes in store, and really hope you can support us by purchasing our new exciting additions, which you can find alongside our remaining Tony’s bars here.
