Fighting slavery through good business

Ben Greensmith, UK GM Tony’s Chocolonely

Child-labour and slavery in the cocoa industry is rife but Tony’s Chocolonely uses its delicious tasting chocolate and its different business model to make change across the industry.

More about Ben

Ben started his career in food and drink over 20 years ago at IRI and then working for Unilever for in a mixture of sales and category management roles.

He joined innocent drinks in 2007 and was there for 8 years, holding a number of senior commercial roles and helping build the UK  business that was eventually sold to Coca-Cola in 2013 for £0.5 billion.  He left in 2015 to join Proper Snacks, most recently as Chief Operating Officer helping take the business from a start-up to an SME and into national distribution.

Ben has been working for Tony’s since September 2018 as employee number 1 and is responsible for the UK and Ireland. His official job title is Lord Chocolonely iii.

What to expect

Ben gives us insights into how the cocoa industry is operating today and who are the major culprits for exploitation.  He shares what Tony’s Chocolonely is doing to change consumers’ habits and industry practice, and how their how their sourcing principles are helping other businesses.