Four Bars Further | #PodSaveChocolate
Episode 22 of #PodSaveChocolate – Tony’s is up to its old tricks trolling Big Chocolate, gets caught out, and backpedals.
When and Where to Watch
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Link to watch and comment from my LinkedIn profile.
Link to watch and comment on TheChocolateLife page on Facebook.
Episode 22 Overview
This episode of #PodSaveChocolate covers the most recent attempt by Tony’s Chocolonely to troll Big Chocolate brands by mimicking their packaging to draw attention to what Tony’s is doing that Big Chocolate is not.
The original version of the packaging for the Milka bar troll was the same lilac color that Milka uses. Tony’s has been forced to change the label, hence the image on the left.
Clay Gordon
Published 2021-01-29.
A German court decided that Tony’s infringed on Mondelēz’s intellectual property by using the same color as the Milka packaging. Other German courts have been asked to determine if Ritter owns the idea of square bars and another German court ruled that bars sweetened with cacao pulp sugar are not legally chocolate. Because, Reasons?
Clay Gordon
Part 2 of my series on the Four Bars topic.
The way Tony’s reports results makes it much more difficult to compare year-over-year. In my opinion, this is delibarate obfuscation.
News Coverage
From the above report:
Last June, Belgian investor Verlinvest had upped its stake in Tony’s Chocolonely.
The private-equity firm, the investment vehicle of the de Spoelberch family, increased its holding in Tony’s Chocolonely as part of a €20m ($21.8m at the time) funding round from existing shareholders.
The amount Verlinvest – which was already Tony’s Chocolonely’s largest shareholder – invested is unknown but its total shareholding has now increased from 43.1% to 55.9%. Its percentage of voting shares has increased from 50.1% to 64.2%.
Anthony Myers
More Prior Coverage
TheChocolateWire
Resources – Tony’s Annual “Fair” Reports
View/download the 2022/2023 report.
Clay Gordon
My most recent interview with Terry Collingsworth of International Rights Advocates on Big Chocolate and illegal labor in W Africa.
Episode Hashtags
#TonysChocolonely #WhoDecidesWhatsFair#cocoa #cacao #cacau
#chocolate #chocolat
#PodSaveChocolate #PodSaveChoc #PSC
#LaVidaCocoa #TheChocolateLife
#TheChocolateLifeLIVE Archive
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Clay Gordon