{"id":1085,"date":"2009-05-05T11:38:40","date_gmt":"2009-05-05T11:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=1085"},"modified":"2009-10-23T11:41:13","modified_gmt":"2009-10-23T11:41:13","slug":"craig-sams-green-and-blacks-chocolate-ethical-corp-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/craig-sams-green-and-blacks-chocolate-ethical-corp-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Sams, Green and Black’s Chocolate – Ethical Corp interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethical brands \u2013 How Green & Black\u2019s struck chocolate gold<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Creativity, pragmatism and zeal define social entrepreneur Craig Sams, founder of iconic chocolate maker Green & Black\u2019s<\/p>\n

by Ben Cooper<\/a><\/p>\n

Asking whether \u201csocial entrepreneurs\u201d created ethical consumerism or vice versa is a bit like asking which came first, the organic chicken or the free-range egg. By the same token, are they first and foremost moral opinion-leaders, or businesspeople capitalising on a demand?<\/p>\n

Craig Sams, founder of the Green & Black\u2019s organic chocolate brand, comes across as less the environmental and social visionary and more the practical businessman, with the success of Green & Black\u2019s coming down to the blend of creativity, opportunism, pragmatism and determination that typifies successful enterprise of any sort.<\/p>\n

He concedes that the creation of Green & Black\u2019s came about virtually by accident. He had been producing organic peanut butter under his Whole Earth brand, and discovered that his peanut farmers also produced organic cocoa beans.<\/p>\n

Sams freely admits that the strategy evolved as he went along: \u201cWe went for 70% [cocoa solids] and we didn\u2019t really think beyond that to be quite honest.\u201d But from the outset, there was an emphasis on where the product came from. \u201cWe were the first people who talked about where it came from, had photographs of the farmers, photographs of the trees with cocoa pods on them.\u201d The Green & Black\u2019s Maya Gold Fairtrade brand, produced by a group of smallholders in Belize, was launched in 1994 and recently reached its 15th anniversary.<\/p>\n

While Green & Black\u2019s appears to have been in tune with the growth in natural, organic and ethically traded foods, Sams plays down the degree to which he either shaped or capitalised on these trends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have pioneered a lot of things, but an awful lot of that was what I was personally into,\u201d he says. But there is a difference between organic aficionado and entrepreneur. With regard to organic dark chocolate, he adds: \u201cI figured if I wanted it there would probably be 10,000 or 15,000 people out there who would want it and it started to be an interesting business proposition and worth investing in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enlightened self-interest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sams believes social enterprises are defined as much by the interdependent relationships between their stakeholders, and their financial constraints, as by ethical ideals. The lower capital base, \u201cencourages co-dependency with all the stakeholders in your business\u201d, and the result is a more \u201ccollaborative and cooperative approach\u201d.<\/p>\n

Treating suppliers well represents \u201cenlightened self-interest\u201d, he adds, citing the project in Belize. \u201cAt a time when getting good-quality organic cocoa was practically impossible for most people, we sat with it piling up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sams says that spirit of enlightened self-interest has continued under the ownership of Cadbury, which acquired Green & Black\u2019s in 2005. The retention of Sams and other executives as board members, \u201cwith the ear of [chief executive] Todd Stitzer\u201d, has been critical in retaining the ethos of the company, while Cadbury had the capital the group needed to become a leading global brand. \u201cWe knew they were committed to fuelling the growth in the brand to becoming the biggest organic premium chocolate brand in the world,\u201d Sams says.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the brand\u2019s profile, PR and its commitment to organic agriculture and environmental and social issues \u201chave all been retained\u201d, but with far larger marketing resources.<\/p>\n

Sams concedes that \u201cthings could have gone wrong\u201d in selling to a multinational, and believes Cadbury\u2019s own high ethical standards and its willingness to retain the Green & Black\u2019s ethos and allow it to inform its core business, for example with regard to organic farming and the recent decision to switch Dairy Milk to Fairtrade, have been crucial.<\/p>\n

Not all stories of such buyouts have such apparently happy outcomes. Sams says he has watched many competitors who \u201chad kept him awake at night\u201d all but disappear having decided to sell out to multinationals. \u201cThere are more examples where it hasn\u2019t worked than where it has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organic growth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amid cynicism about greenwashing, Sams says the moves being made towards more ethical business by major companies are to be welcomed. Some of what is being said may be more PR than substance, but, he points out, it was not even being said 15 years ago. \u201cI believe in self-fulfilling prophecy and I believe in self-fulfilling PR. If you go out and say something often enough it starts to actually happen. So I believe what some people would call the bullshit. It may not be gold standard but it\u2019s going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sams himself has moved on from organic foods to carbon sequestering technology through his new company Carbon Gold, though he says his heart \u201cbeats a little faster\u201d when he sees Whole Earth Corn Flakes or any of his other products on a shelf. \u201cThere\u2019s an emotional attachment that you keep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding Green & Black\u2019s in particular, which he says \u201cis still our baby\u201d, Sams recounts with glee that he recently found the brand in a supermarket while on holiday in Barbados. That Green & Black\u2019s is now so widely available and that Craig Sams holidays in Barbados both say something about the brand\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

However, cynics may suggest that exiting the organic market might have been a wise move, given the recession and the slowdown in organic sales seen in recent months. Sams, however, believes the decline in organic has been exaggerated by the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are influenced by newspapers \u2013 most people are \u2013 but the tragedy is that Tesco and Sainsbury\u2019s buyers are influenced by it and so they started scaling down the amount of shelf space they offered to organic in anticipation of what they thought was going to happen, and so to some extent again it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.\u201d However, he is optimistic about the future. \u201cI\u2019m not really worried. There are much deeper trends towards ethical consumerism than the current state of the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he remains involved with the Green & Black\u2019s and with organic food through the organic bakery and food shop he owns in Hastings, Sams now directs his energies primarily to Carbon Gold, which produces charcoal from biomass, known as Biochar. According to Carbon Gold, \u201cBiochar-based fertilisers can restore soil structure, reducing the need for fertiliser and water, while capturing atmospheric CO2<\/sub> and permanently burying it in the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n

Given his record for being in advance of trends, Sams\u2019 views on carbon are interesting. In essence, he believes the carbon issue will make many of the moral questions we have been wrestling with in business redundant. For example, carbon trading will revolutionise the way we ship food, while \u201cfactory farming will fall apart because of its own internal energy contradictions\u201d. On the other hand, small farms and organic agriculture \u201cwill be among the winners\u201d.<\/p>\n

Listening to Sams speak about carbon gives some clue to his success. He may play down the degree to which an ethical vision has shaped his fortunes but what he and other social entrepreneurs unquestionably bring to their businesses is belief in what they are doing and zeal, and those appear to go a long way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethical brands \u2013 How Green & Black\u2019s struck chocolate gold Creativity, pragmatism and zeal define social entrepreneur Craig Sams, founder of iconic chocolate maker Green & Black\u2019s by Ben Cooper Asking whether \u201csocial entrepreneurs\u201d created ethical consumerism or vice versa is a bit like asking which came first, the organic chicken or the free-range egg. …
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