Charlotte Green Joins Divine Chocolate as Marketing Director

Divine, the Fairtrade chocolate company owned by cocoa farmers, is pleased to announce the appointment of Charlotte Green in the new role of Marketing Director at Divine Chocolate Ltd. Charlotte joins from Nestlé where she was Brand Manager for a number of well-known and loved brands such as After Eight, and Black Magic.

Charlotte Green says: "Divine Chocolate is an exceptional brand in the premium market, combining fine quality chocolate with the unique proposition of Fairtrade and farmer-ownership. Its future is exciting with the challenge to continue to do things differently, so I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be involved in the next stage of its development. Whilst I bring lots of experience from the confectionery category, I'm also excited about learning from the team that created this special brand and working together to realise our social mission to empower producers and consumers."

Divine Chocolate Managing Director Sophi Tranchell says: "Charlotte Green brings with her considerable experience of the mainstream chocolate market from her time at Nestlé, where she has been Brand Manager and Category Manager for a number of their well-known products and ranges. The skills she brings, and her analytical approach, will help build our confidence that we have the right "tools of the trade", as we take Divine to its next stage of development."

Charlotte Green has eight successful years at Nestlé, based in York, under her belt – with four of those years in brand marketing. Working closely with the Divine sales team, she will be responsible for developing the scale and impact of Divine's marketing and ensuring that all sales channels and targets are fully supported. Charlotte will also be reviewing and enhancing Divine's use of the marketing mix to create the most effective activations and engagement with key consumer audiences. She will be involved in the new product development programme at Divine, in terms of both identifying market opportunities, and rationalising and optimising the range.

Divine Chocolate has proved a very different business model can work and succeed in the highly competitive chocolate market. Despite a very challenging economic climate, which has impacted on companies across fmcg sectors, Divine has grown to £8m in the UK, and now sells in countries across Europe, and in USA, Canada, South Korea, Japan and Australia. It has been a key player in the growth of the Fairtrade movement, and a leading social enterprise, chosen as one of the ambassadors of the BIS "Business is GREAT" UK campaign. Divine is Social Enterprise of the Year 2014, and winner of the Guardian Sustainable Business Social Impact Innovation Award.

Charlotte Green joins the senior management team at Divine Chocolate – Managing Director Sophi Tranchell, Finance Director David Upton, Sales Director Jean-Paul Pelaez and Communications Director Charlotte Borger.

ENDS

For further information please contact Charlotte Borger atcharlotte@divinechocolate.com

Editors notes:

• · Divine Chocolate is the only Fairtrade chocolate company that is also co-owned by cocoa farmers. Kuapa Kokoo, a co-operative of over 80,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana, benefit not only from the Fairtrade premium on the sale of their beans, but also receive the largest share (44%) of Divine's distributable profits giving the farmers more economic stability, as well as the increased influence in the cocoa industry company-ownership brings

• · Divine is a mission-driven business. Its mission is "To grow a successful global farmer-owned chocolate company using the amazing power of chocolate to delight and engage, and bring people together to create dignified trading relations, thereby empowering producers and consumers."

• · The Fairtrade cocoa in Divine chocolate is fully traceable from bean to bar

• · Divine is sold in UK, USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Czech Republic, South Korea, Japan and Australia

• · Keep up to date with Divine UK online:
  • o Everything you need to know about Divine:www.divinechocolate.com/uk
  • o For trade enquiries visit:http://www.divinechocolate.com/uk/trade
  • o Follow Divine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/divinechocolate
  • o Follow Divine on Facebook:www.facebook.com/divinechocolate

• · All Divine products carry the Fairtrade Mark. This is an independent guarantee certified by Fairtrade International that the ingredients are sourced under internationally agreed fair trade terms and conditions. These include a guaranteed, secure minimum price, an extra social premium payment for the farmers to invest in their own community programmes, long term trading contracts, decent health and safety conditions – all aimed at empowering farmers to make their own improvements to living standards and prospects for the future. For more about Fairtrade visit www.fairtrade.org.uk