Fairtrade goes mainstreamCadbury’s announced earlier this month that all Dairy Milk bars sold in Ireland and the UK from the end of Summer 2009 will carry the fair-trade mark. It’s great news that at last a truly mainstream brand is embracing fairtrade. For a long time it seemed that the huge FMCG companies were buying into the myth that it couldn’t be done, that fairtrade could be applied only to smaller specialist brands. When Cadbury’s bought Green & Blacks in 2005 I suspected that one of the reasons for doing this was to demonstrate a commitment to fairtrade without the need to change their core buying practices. Cadbury’s does of course have a great heritage of social responsibility, particularly with their direct workforce. In my college teaching work I’ve been using a Channel 4 educational video about chocolate which shows some of the terrible forced labour practices that have occurred in cocoa framing and also the positive impact that a fair and consistent price for cocoa can have on the cocoa farmers and their families. In this video the mainstream chocolate companies are seen to be somewhat dismissive of the potential for using fairly traded cocoa in the big brands. In fact a senior manager of Cadbury Schweppes (the video was obviously made prior to the demerger) says that people in the company want to be responsible and then adds, in as far as that is in line with the need to deliver returns to the shareholders. I love the way in which Cadbury’s has formulated its CR reporting making it both fun and informative in a way which truly reflects the brand. I recently heard a financial analyst who was speaking about the way in which financial analysts use CR reports criticise some of Cadbury’s previous reporting. He was dismissive of the cartoonish illustrations and fun look saying that he really couldn’t take it seriously. I think he missed the point. Surely that fun look that reflects the brands being sold actually sends the message that responsibility is really integrated into the brand and therefore into the company, not just a window dressing report so that they’ve something to hand to analysts. This latest commitment to fairtrade in their best selling chocolate bar would appear to bear this out and I’m pleased that I won’t have to feel guilty when adding a couple of bars of my husband’s favourite chocolate to our grocery shopping. 2 Comments1. Grainne Madden | 2009-04-09 05:00 PM Thanks for your kind comments on the website and I hope that you continue to find commentary of interest to you here. - Grainne 2. Irreseenrow | 2009-04-05 07:01 PM Great site this www.gmjassociates.com and I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in. I shall be pleased to become a regular visitor :) Add a CommentYour comment will appear once it has been approved. |