Divine Chocolate, the UK-based Fairtrade chocolate maker, is upbeat about its prospects despite the imminent arrival of Cadbury into the category.
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Earlier this month, Cadbury laid out plans to achieve Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk later this year.
Formed in 1998, Divine is one of the best known Fairtrade brands on the market with listings with all major UK supermarket chains. The company is 45%-owned by the Kuapa Kokoo farmers’ cooperative in Ghana.
Alistair Menzies, Divine’s head of sales and marketing, said the strength of the company’s brand will mean it can still thrive when Cadbury switches Dairy Milk to Fairtrade.
“There’s growing consumer awareness of Fairtrade and it has been growing at a ridiculous speed, so it was only a matter of time before some of the larger companies came in and wanted to be part of that,” Menzies told just-food at the IFE exhibition in London today (15 March).
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By GlobalDataMenzies said there would be no major changes to Divine’s marketing strategy and that the company would continue to highlight its status as a farmer-owned business.
“We’ve got a very good brand and good chocolate. Our USP is that we are owned by the farmers; we exist to serve the farmers,” Menzies said.
Divine’s sales have been rising by 20% on average in recent years, Menzies said. Turnover last year was GBP12.4m (US$17.3m), around 90% of which came from the UK.
Despite the downturn, demand for Fairtrade products in the UK continues to rise. Menzies insisted Divine’s biggest challenge would not be Cadbury but would be continuing to grow sales in a turbulent economy.
“You can’t control what other people do – you can only control what you do,” Menzies said. “This year will be a challenge but not because of Cadbury but because some of our customers are having some trouble.”
Cadbury plans to switch the Dairy Milk on sale in the UK and Ireland to Fairtrade by the end of the summer.
