Divine Chocolate facts for kids
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| Industry | Retail (Fair Trade) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Products | Chocolate |
Divine Chocolate Limited is a company from the United Kingdom that sells Fairtrade chocolate. It started in 1998. This company was special because it was partly owned by the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa farmers' co-operative in Ghana. Other original owners included Twin Trading and The Body Shop. Groups like Christian Aid and Comic Relief also helped them get started. Later, The Body Shop gave its shares to Kuapa Kokoo. This meant the farmers' share of Divine Chocolate grew from 33% to 45%.
How Divine Chocolate Helps Farmers
Divine Chocolate has a special way of doing business. The farmers who grow the cocoa beans actually own the biggest part of the company. This means they get to share in the company's profits.
Divine Chocolate gives money to the Kuapa Kokoo farmers in four main ways:
- They pay the farmers a special Fairtrade minimum price for their cocoa. If the world price for cocoa is higher, they pay that instead.
- They pay an extra $200 for every tonne of cocoa. This is called the Fairtrade premium.
- They give 2% of their yearly sales to help support and develop the farmers' communities.
- The farmers also receive 44% of the company's profits that are shared out.
Who Owns Divine Chocolate?
After The Body Shop gave its shares to Kuapa Kokoo in 2007, Divine Chocolate Ltd was owned by a few different groups:
- Kuapa Kokoo, the Fairtrade cocoa farmers' cooperative in Ghana, owned 45%.
- Twin Trading, a group in London that supports fair trade, owned 43%.
- Oikocredit, a Dutch organization that helps small businesses, owned 12%.
In 2015, the Divine Chocolate businesses in the UK and the USA joined together. Kuapa Kokoo still had the largest share, owning 44% of the new company. Divine Chocolate Ltd (UK) bought the remaining shares of Divine Chocolate Inc (USA). This made Divine Chocolate Ltd the full owner of Divine Chocolate Inc.
Awards and Recognition
Divine Chocolate has won many awards for its work and its products. In 2002, it was a runner-up for the Worldaware Award for small businesses. This award recognized Divine for being brave and creative in promoting fair trade chocolate. This was especially important in the very competitive chocolate market.
Divine Chocolate was also named the Best Ethical Business by The Observer newspaper in 2008. In 2007, it was voted the Best Social Enterprise. Good Housekeeping magazine chose Divine as their Favourite Fairtrade Product in 2008.
More recently, in 2013, two Divine products won awards at the Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Food. Divine was also named the Favourite Fairtrade Product in the UK. It won the Social Enterprise of the Year award in 2014. In 2015, Divine won the Guardian Sustainable Business Award for Social Impact Innovation.
