Green & Blacks - The Company

This research will go into detail about the company in terms of history and what they have to offer which should open up some doors for ideas further than Will and I have already thought through.

About the company:

Green and Blacks are primarily known as a chocolate bar producing company. The bars are seen as being pretty 'premium' as a brand, mostly because of their high quality packaging and their price, which is much higher than most chocolate bars in the country. It is also well known for being an ecologically friendly brand in terms of quality and well sourced ingredients and for dealing properly with the fairtrade organisation.

History

Green & Blacks started in 1991 when co founder Josephine Fairley found a bar of chocolate on her husband Craig's desk. The chocolate was a sample of dark 70% chocolate made from organic Cocoa beans. She tried the chocolate and loved it, deciding that others would appreciate the intensity of the chocolate that was otherwise very rare in the UK. It was this that started Jo and Craig to make their first chocolate bar with the 70% cocoa level which made Green & Blacks so popular.

The next type of chocolate bar came in 1994 when Jo and Craig went on a holiday to Belize where they met a group of Mayan farmer who owned cocoa trees and sold their produce to a large chocolate company which left the farmers with no market. The couple decided to buy the cocoa from the farmers at a fair price and used it to make the Maya Gold chocolate bar which still exists now. Because of the fair price and treatment of the farmers, Green & Blacks was awarded with the UK's first Fairtrade mark.

The rest of the products and development of the company came from expanding and growing the company successfully and a lot of loyal customers. Since the company was started in 1991, this year is the 20th anniversary of Green & Blacks which could be used in the solution to the problem.

In 2005, Green & Blacks was bought out with an 80% share by Cadbury Schweppes. Many thought this was a stumbling point of the ethically solid and well reputed company as at the time of association with Schweppes (The collaboration has since dissolved), they were well known for producing a number of unhealthy and relatively unethically sound soft drinks and chocolate bars. These worries were mostly unfounded as Craig stayed on as a top decision maker and the company realistically just expanded more and from what i can tell kept the same high quality and attention to detail.

In 2010, Cadbury was bought by Kraft Foods, the biggest confectionary, food and beverage corporation in the world. This means that Green and Blacks is now owned by them as well which could potentially have some serous ramifications in the future regarding the loyal customers who have known since starting as a small independent company and have now developed into a huge global organisation.