Tony's Chocolonely
Challenging mix packaging

Dutch chocolate brand Tony's Chocolonely's mission is to establish 100% slave-free chocolate as the norm. This is very ambitious, but the results obtained so far are promising. To develop mix packaging for their Tiny Tony's, Tony's found a collaboration with Nomi Co-Packing.
Marloes Ike was closely involved as Captain Co-Pack.
Abuses in cocoa industry
"Tony's Chocolonely originated from the Dutch television show Keuringsdienst van Waarde," Marloes explains from the new headquarters in Amsterdam. "The Journalist Teun van de Keuken stumbled upon the severe abuses in the cocoa industry in 2003. Tens of thousands of adults and children were appartently forced to grow cocoa without getting paid. This was the beginning of Teun's lonely fight against modern day slavery in the cocoa industry. Two years later, he launched Tony's Chocolonely's first Fair Trade chocolate bar."
Having an impact
"Our goal is to have an impact across the cocoa industry. We want to end modern day slavery and illegal child labour. We do this by paying farmers the price of a living wage for 100% traceable cocoa, in other words, knowing exactly where our cocoa comes from and under what conditions it is produced. We are currently growing tremendously fast, but we are still relatively small. Nevertheless, we now have offices in Hamburg, London, Salzburg and New York. We supply our bars through distributors in 40 countries, and are in the Duty Free shops of some 140 airports. We want to show other companies that you can also be successful in a fair way. With Tony's Open Chain, we invite other chocolate brands to join our mission for 100% slave-free chocolate and we help them to sustainably change their supply chains. So being able to work here gives me enormous satisfaction."
Dosing and filling in mixed packaging
"Because we want to stand out, we often aim for something that is not standard. And because we are still relatively small, we can also move quickly and bring new developments to the market in a short time. When I came on board at Tony's in 2018, my colleagues were already working on releasing Tiny Tony's in mix packages, in addition to our big bars. These are mini Tony's in different flavours. To achieve this, we sought cooperation with a certified and professional co-packing company, and ended up with Nomi Co-Packing. Our main requirement was equal dosing and filling of the ten different flavours. Well, they had no problem with that at NOMI."
Tiny Tony's in paper blockbottom bag
"Later, the idea arose to also supply the Tiny Tony's in a blockbottom bag. With our vision of sustainability, this obviously had to be a paper bag. We were faced with a new challenge, as paper is significantly more fragile than a plastic blockbottom bag. Our prominent colours also had to come across strongly. By striking a balance within the various options, it worked out nicely. In a project team with NOMI and the paper supplier, we arrived at the perfect solution. Today you regularly see similar bags, but we were probably the first to introduce them."
Professionalism and Brabant hospitality
"Depending on the season, NOMI fills, on average, about 260.000 items per month for us in mix packages. Our quality department confirms that the NOMI staff are skillful at managing the risks and work to the highest standards. If something doesn't run quite perfectly, they look for the cause. I personally consider NOMI a committed co-creator that - already in the product development phase - easily interacts with a range of suppliers. That is a tremendous help to us to keep up the speed. And despite being an extremely professional organisation, they also have that genuine Brabant hospitality."
Would you also like to have an assortment of chocolates, confectionery or biscuits in mixed packaging dispensed and filled by a certified co-packer? Then contact us without obligation for more information or a suitable offer.
