Tony’s Chocolonely: Taking On “Big Cocoa” and West African Child Slavery in the Supply Chain

On February 16, 2021, Slave Free Chocolate removed Tony’s Chocolonely (Tony’s), a chocolate company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from its “Ethical Chocolate Companies” list due to Tony’s association with Barry Callebaut, a cocoa processor associated with child slavery in West Africa. Tony’s, a B Corp-certified company whose founding mission was to eradicate child slavery from the cocoa supply chain, had to address its public removal from the list immediately to maintain the company's credibility. How should the chief executive officer of Tony’s respond to the removal?

This case features an organization that is involved in a controversial global supply chain. It is best used in a corporate strategy or international management course. If used in a corporate strategy course, the author suggests using the case early in the course when studying the concepts of stakeholders and corporate social responsibility. In an international management course, the case is suitable for the module on international strategy. Given the issues in the case—global supply chain, vertical integration, nonmarket factors, and social responsibility—instructors can use it in an upper-level undergraduate or a graduate course. After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Understand the nature of a global supply chain and the entities involved in it.</li><li>Analyze the stakeholders of an organization and their impact on its business operations.</li><li>Evaluate the choices an organization faces in addressing a nonmarket issue.</li><li>Assess the impact of vertical integration on an organization.</li></ul>

• child slavery
• social responsibility