12 May 2010
Sophi Tranchell MBE, Managing Director of leading farmer-owned chocolate company Divine Chocolate, has been named International Businesswoman at the SHE Magazine’s Inspiring Women Awards 2010. At an awards ceremony held at London’s Claridges hotel, the extraordinary achievements of Sophi Tranchell and five other women, all nominated by SHE magazine readers, was honoured.
On winning the International Businesswoman of the year award, Sophi Tranchell said,
”It is a great honour to win this award and know that SHE’s readers are inspired by a business like Divine Chocolate. This award is also a tribute to the team that I work with at Divine, and to the farmers who own our business and who are our constant inspiration – especially the women who have been so empowered by their cooperative and owning their own chocolate company.”
SHE magazine asked its 150,000 readers to nominate women they felt were most worthy of the magazine’s Inspiring Women Awards. The entries were then shortlisted and winners selected by a panel of judges that included Claire Irvin, editor of SHE, Dr. Jane Collins, Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, MOBO Awards founder Kanya King MBE, Theresa May MP, Jo Wood, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, and directors from Harrods, Wallis, HSBC, and Chanel.
Along with Sophi Tranchell of Divine Chocolate Ltd, the winners were patient rights advisor and Charity founder Kelly Griffiths, Olympic bobsleigh athlete Nicola Minichiello, Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh, inventor Liz Williams, and cerebral palsy charity fundraiser Jane Holmes. Among the host of celebrity guests at the awards ceremony last week, singer Beverley Knight stood up and declared her love of and devotion to Divine!
Over the past decade Sophi Tranchell has led Divine Chocolate to become a dynamic business and a household name, turning over £12million. She has a high profile as champion of the company’s mission to improve the lives the smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana who co-own the company, and for the social enterprise sector. She has been the driving force behind a brand that delights and engages consumers, with a range of over 40 chocolate products, available at supermarkets and independent shops across the UK. She has also established Divine in the United States, where Divine is currently one of the fastest growing brands in the natural and specialty chocolate market. Divine is available in a total of ten territories globally.
Divine is the first and only Fairtrade chocolate company which is co-owned by the farmers who grow the raw product. The cocoa farmers in Ghana belong to a co-operative called Kuapa Kokoo which owns 45% of the business. This company ownership model gives farmers a share of Divine’s profits and a stronger voice in the cocoa industry. Sophi says, “Before I had even officially started working at Divine I went to Ghana to meet the farmers. Ten years on, it’s amazing to see the changes in their lives – not just from their earnings but from the pride and empowerment of being involved in an international company – they love having a head office in London!”.
Sophi has also overseen the development of Dubble, a Fairtrade chocolate brand co-founded with Comic Relief, created especially for young and proactive Fairtraders. Sophi is also a founding trustee of Trading Visions, an education charity established to build awareness of fair trade issues and to amplify the voices of smallscale producers. She is also elected director and vice chair of Social Enterprise London and a Social Enterprise Ambassador. Sophi was awarded the Real Business /CBI First Woman award for Retail and Property in 2007, and in the New Year’s Honours List 2008/09 Sophi was made an MBE for services to the food industry.