Tony’s Chocolonely is a Dutch chocolate maker. Founded by the journalist Teun van de Keuken, the brand is inspired to produce ‘100% slave free chocolate’. The brand goes public in 2006, but is confronted with a lawsuit by Bellissimo, a Swiss chocolate producer, claiming that “slave-free chocolate is impossible to produce”. The court rules in the favour of Tony’s Chocolonely. Nevertheless, the brand changes its claim to ‘on the road to 100% slave-free chocolate’ to “underscore our ambition to make not just our own, but all the world’s chocolate slave-free”.
In 2008 the company established the Chocolonely Foundation, created to support cocoa farming communities. The Foundation is financed in part by Tony’s Chocolonely profits. With financial backing from Oxfam Novib, they launch a research project called ‘Tony’s in Africa’ in 2009. The project’s aim is to improve the Fair Trade chain so that farmers profit more greatly from it. In 2013, Tony’s Chocolonely introduces its first Bean to Bar chocolate bar, made from fully traceable cocoa beans in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.