Green & Black's

Green & Black's

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1991
Founder	Craig Sams, Josephine Fairley
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Products	Chocolate, ice cream, biscuits, baking chocolate
Owner	Mondelēz International
Website	[1]

Green & Black's is a British chocolate company founded in 1991. The company produces a range of chocolate bars, ice cream, biscuits and hot chocolate, with its principal manufacturing sites in Canada, Poland, and Italy. Its products are organic and premium-priced. It was bought by Cadbury in 2005, and later became part of Mondelēz International (formerly known as Kraft Foods).

History

Founding

Green & Black's was founded in 1991 by the couple Craig Sams and Josephine Fairley, organic food pioneer and journalist respectively. The name was derived from a wordplay — "Green" standing for the environmental concerns of the founders, and "Black" for the high cocoa solids chocolate they wished to provide. In 1994, the company began purchasing Fairtrade cocoa from Maya farmers in Belize for the Maya Gold chocolate bar, and was awarded the Worldaware Business Award in 1994 for good business practice, as well as the UK's first Fairtrade mark. The company has a small office in Punta Gorda, Belize.

Ownership changes and fairtrade

In May 2005, Cadbury Schweppes (latterly Cadbury plc) bought Green & Black's for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be around £20m. Cadbury pledged to run the company as a separate business.

Green & Black's Australia chocolate announced that it would convert 90% of its range to Fairtrade by the end of 2010, and its entire range by 2011.

On 19 January 2010, Cadbury was taken over by Kraft Foods Inc, Cadbury was valued at £11.5 billion ($19.5 billion US).

In October 2012, Kraft Foods Inc 2012 became Mondelēz International and part of its operation was starbursted as Kraft Foods Group, Inc.

Operations

Green & Black's has operations around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and other nations.

United States

Green & Black's sells chocolate bars, baking chocolate, and hot chocolate products in the United States, they are sold in stores such as Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's, Walgreens, among other retailers nationwide. They have various chocolate bars, on various flavours such as "Milk 36% Cacao", "Dark 86% Cacao", "Milk with Peanuts", and "White". All are organic, and all are Fairtrade Certified.

Green & Black's is also one of the largest organic chocolate companies in the US.

Recalls

On 15 October 2012 Mondelēz Global LLC conducted voluntary U.S. recall of Green & Black’s organic peanut and sea salt milk chocolate bar due to possible health risk.

Books

• Sweet Dreams – The Story of Green & Black’s Craig Sam and Josephine Fairley (2008) Random House

See also

• List of chocolate bar brands

External links

• Green & Black's
• Green & Black's profile
• BBC News: Cadbury gobbles up organic rival (13 May 2005)
• The Guardian: interview with Craig Sams (16 May 2005)
• The Observer: How a £1.50 chocolate bar saved a Mayan community from destruction (28 May 2006)
• http://www.craigsams.com
• Green & Black's Australia going Fair Trade. The Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand
• BBC News: Kraft takes over Cadburys (2 February 2010)
• FDA FDA U.S. Food and Drug administration: Recalls (Last Updated: 15 October 2012)