Waitrose is expanding its partnership with Tony’s Open Chain, bringing a larger share of its chocolate range into a cocoa sourcing model designed to give retailers greater visibility over where their cocoa comes from and how farmers are paid.
More than half of Waitrose’s seasonal chocolate products will now be sourced through Tony’s Open Chain’s Mass Balance system. The retailer has also increased the volume of cocoa beans purchased through the programme by 53% since the 2023–24 cocoa season.
The move extends a partnership that began in 2024, when Waitrose became the first UK retailer to join Tony’s Open Chain as a Mission Ally. The original agreement covered nine products, including six own-label chocolate bars and three Cook’s ingredient bars, using segregated cocoa.
The latest expansion takes the relationship into a much larger part of Waitrose’s seasonal and boxed chocolate business. For the first time, some of its own-label boxed chocolates will use Tony’s Open Chain’s “Bean to Machine” sourcing model, alongside existing Fairtrade-certified cocoa.
For shoppers, the chocolate itself will not change. Waitrose says the recipes, taste and quality of its products will remain the same.
The bigger change is happening further back in the supply chain.
Tony’s Open Chain requires cocoa to be traceable back to where it is grown and promotes higher payments to farmers, stronger co-operatives and longer-term relationships with suppliers. The model also includes a commitment to pay the Living Income Reference Price for cocoa, on top of Fairtrade requirements.
For Waitrose, the expansion reflects a growing pressure on food retailers to look beyond the finished product and understand what happens before it reaches the shelf.
Cocoa has become a particularly important issue for the chocolate industry as retailers face questions around farmer incomes, supply-chain transparency and the long-term sustainability of cocoa production.
The Waitrose announcement therefore represents more than a change in sourcing paperwork.
It shows how the supermarket’s purchasing decisions are increasingly becoming part of the product story — even when the customer cannot see the difference on the shelf.