Product details

The Co-operative Group in the UK has successfully deployed a strategy of selling Fairtrade products including bananas, coffee, tea, wine and chocolate. Their ambition was to become the leading supermarket supporter of Fairtrade in the UK and to bring Fairtrade into the mainstream of UK grocery retailing. The case addresses the issues facing the head of brand marketing and the head of quality in seeking to expand the sales of Fairtrade chocolate. On the one hand they were having supply problems, their Fairtrade supplier was not prepared to make an own-label product for them, their existing own-label supplier was not prepared to supply Fairtrade chocolate, and their current fair trade chocolate was being made to continental European, not UK tastes. Expanding sales of Fairtrade chocolate would require possible dropping of their existing own-label supplier. In addition, expanding the Fairtrade chocolate range would mean dropping some of their existing products with possible loss of sales. Finally the impact of potentially moving to 100% Fairtrade chocolate was very unclear. A case on how to proceed must be prepared and presented to the board of the organisation.