oikos Case Writing Competition 2013
Social Entrepreneurship Track
Runner-up
All Good Bananas: Selling the
FairTrade Message
Eva Collins, Steve Bowden, Kate Kearins and Helen Tregida,
University of Waikato/Auckland University of Technology
This is an Online Inspection Copy. Protected under Copyright Law.
Reproduction Forbidden unless Authorized. Questions relating to permission should be
directed to: [email protected]
Copyright © 2013 by the Authors. All rights reserved. This case was prepared by Eva
Collins, Steve Bowden, Kate Kearins and Helen Tregida as a basis for class discussion rather
than to illustrate the effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. No part
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oikos Case Writing Competition 2013
Runner-up
Chris Morrison walked along the wild, wind-swept Piha beach in West Auckland, New
Zealand with his two business partners. Although Piha was not the typical setting for a
business meeting, it suited this group. Founder of Phoenix Organics drinks company, Chris
Morrison, his brother Matt, and former 42-below Vodka Marketing Director Simon Coley
had met there in 2008 and decided they wanted “to create a company that would raise the
bar for ethical and sustainable business.” 1 They founded Wayfairer Ltd., which also traded
as All Good and All Good Bananas “on the principle that food that’s good for you should taste
good and be good for the people who grow it.” 2 Despite charging a significant premium over
competitors (NZ$3.99 or more versus the regular NZ$2.99 per bunch), All Good had
captured 5% of the NZ$143 million banana market in New Zealand by June 2012. The trio
had introduced Fairtrade bananas into the New Zealand market. They now wondered
whether All Good should go for a larger share of the banana market and, if so, how with only
five employees and powerful multinational competitors? Or was it time to pursue their
environmental and social goals by diversifying the company into other Fairtrade products?
Bananas Everywhere
New Zealanders had one of the highest per capita banana consumption rates in the world, 3
but its climate was too cold to grow bananas commercially. After rice, wheat, and corn,
bananas were the fourth most widely consumed human food in the world. 4 India produced
the greatest number of bananas in 2012 - 11 million tons which were mostly consumed
domestically. The biggest banana exporting countries were Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia
and the Philippines. 5
1http://business.newzealand.com/emea/en/news-and-events/news/kiwi-company-all-good-organics-named%E2%80%98world%E2%80%99s-most-ethical-company%E2%80%99/
www.allgoodorganics.co.nz
www.everythingmarketing.co.nz/showcase/2011/11
4 http://suite101.com/article/top-ten-banana-countries-a8403
5 http://suite101.com/article/top-ten-banana-countries-a8403
2
3
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Globally, 80 percent of the production and trade of bananas was dominated by five
multinational companies – Chiquita, Dole, Del Monte, Noba and Fyffes. 6 Players in the New
Zealand market included international corporate Dole, and other importers of Gracio and
Bonita branded bananas from Ecuador and the Philippines.
According to the Rainforest Alliance (an international not-for-profit organization dedicated
to the conservation of tropical forests), “Banana plantations were infamous for their
environmental and social abuses, which included the use of dangerous pesticides, poor
working conditions, water pollution and deforestation.” 7 Bananas grown in tropical or warm
subtropical climes were picked green, shipped to non-banana growing nations, ripened in
airtight rooms filled with ethylene gas, ahead of transportation to point of sale. Their shelf
life was around 7-10 days.
The international market for bananas was valued at over NZ$25 billion in 2010, with only
petrol and scratch cards outselling bananas in United Kingdom supermarkets. 8 The world’s
favorite banana was the Cavendish variety which New Zealanders also preferred. Fairtrade
bananas were just a small part of the overall market, but comprised a significant share in
some European countries – it was still an open question as to whether New Zealand
consumers would follow this trend.
An Unfair Trade?
Bananas were full of fiber and nutrients such as potassium. They contained tryptophan and
vitamin B6, which were known to help humans feel happy. 9 While bananas were generally
considered healthy to eat, there had long been concerns about large-scale banana
production. Bananas were grown commercially on large, single-variety plantations where
fungicides and insecticides were applied as many as 40 times a year. 10 Tellingly, the
countries with the highest pesticide use in the world per hectare were also the highest
banana exporters - Costa Rica, Colombia and, at number four, Ecuador 11 - the country from
which All Good imported Fairtrade, Cavendish bananas.
Banana growing had traditionally been dominated by large, multinational corporations with
a sometimes unfortunate legacy in the developing countries where the bananas were
grown. 12 Evidence existed of overthrown governments and murdered union officials linked
6
Smith, A. (2009). Unpeeling the banana trade. A Fairtrade Foundation Briefing Paper. www.fairtrade.org.uk
7
www.rainforest-alliance.org/agriculture/crops/fruits/bananas
Lamb, H. & Kenworthy, A.
(31 October 2011).
Banana Republic.
All Good Magazine.
http://good.net.nz/magazine/good-issue-17/features/banana-republic, accessed 13 June 2012.
8
Lamb & Kenworthy, 2011
www.plu.edu/~bananas/environmental/home.html
11 www.nationmaster.com/graph/agr_pes_use-agriculture-pesticide-use
12 The term “banana republic” referred to Central and South American countries run by dictators put in power by
corporate interest to exploit limited natural resources such as minerals or agricultural products
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-banana-republic.htm
9
10
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to major banana companies since the 1950s. 13, 14 The chemicals used to control insects and
diseases had a detrimental impact on the health of the workers. One of the chemicals, DBCP,
used to kill the worm-like parasites that attacked the roots of banana plants, had left tens of
thousands of workers in Central America and Asia with a host of health problems including
cancer, sterility and children with birth defects. 15
The big corporations had continually pushed their production prices down. Most no longer
owned banana plantations themselves, avoiding production risks such as natural disasters
and the labor costs. The big banana players typically focused on the more profitable
marketing and distribution activities. 16
Bananas were frequently a weapon of choice in the price wars pursued by major
supermarkets. 17 At the same time bananas were one of the supermarkets’ biggest profitmakers. 18 Fairtrade advocates argued that price cuts were simply passed onto suppliers and
down the chain until they reached plantation workers, the weakest link in the chain and
therefore the easiest to squeeze. Plantation workers got about four percent of the value of an
exported banana; retailers got 29 percent. 19 UK supermarkets made about 40 pence on every
pound spent on bananas, while plantation workers were paid just one penny. 20 Oxfam, an
independent development agency, reported that banana plantation workers earned as little
as U.S.$3 a day in 2012, not enough to support themselves or their families. 21
“So eating bananas is good for you and growing bananas provides needed jobs in some
developing countries, but the way the bananas are grown can harm the health of the planet
and exploit plantation workers and their families,” summarized Morrison. “We founded All
Good Bananas because we believe in a better way of doing business.”
Serial Ecopreneur Goes Bananas
Morrison founded his first business in 1985 when he bought equipment for NZ$50 to make
and sell ginger beer. The bathtub production later became Phoenix Organic, New Zealand’s
first organic drinks company. In 2005, Phoenix Organic sold for NZ$10 million. Instead of
seeing an opportunity to retire, Morrison decided to leverage his learning as an ecopreneur
and a promoter of sustainable business to have an even bigger impact.
www.plu.edu/~bananas/brief-history/home.html
http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=e9cdc4f4e0d84223370731fad&id=ecc034d952&e=[UNIQID]
15 Lamb & Kenworthy, 2011
13
14
16
Schotter A. & Teagarden M. (2010). Blood Bananas: Chiquita in Colombia. Harvard Business Review.
www.bananalink.org.uk/who-earns-what-from-field-to-supermarket
Schotter & Teagarden, 2010
19 www.bananalink.org.uk/who-earns-what-from-field-to-supermarket
20 www.goodreads.com/book/show/1699931.Shopped
21 Lamb & Kenworthy, 2011
17
18
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Chris Morrison
In 2012, Morrison was awarded “Sustainability Champion” as part of the annual Sustainable
Business Network awards. Morrison explained what motivated him, “I like being a
trendsetter, being ahead of competitors, coming up with new ideas and products. That is an
important part of being successful, especially when you are a small business against very
large corporations. Innovation is a core part of it. The last place a small business wants to be
is in a price war so sustainability is about adding value to consumers, telling a story about
where the ingredients come from, telling the health story, the social story, the environmental
story.” 22
The three co-founders thinking back in 2008, when the company was established, was
explained by Morrison. “We wanted to stimulate some business in the Pacific. We thought it
was interesting that New Zealand used to buy all its bananas from Tonga and Samoa, and
similar countries, and yet now you couldn’t find any bananas from that area….The big
companies, the Chiquitas and Doles of this world, claimed the Pacific bananas were not
hygienic and they weren’t uniform... and they could offer a more systematic, and cheaper
approach to supplying bananas to New Zealand.” The All Good team knew Dole had the
largest market share, were aggressive and possessed deep pockets for advertising and could
sustain discounting.
All Good was not a publicly listed company; therefore financial information was not
available. In addition to claiming to have 5% of the NZ$143 million New Zealand banana
market, All Good’s website reported in January 2013 that the company had sold 3.9 million
bunches since the company started trading. Morrison revealed that the company’s revenues
had grown 50% from 2011 to 2012. In 2012, All Good, based in Auckland, had five
employees: a Marketing and Communications Manager, part-time Social Media Manager,
National Sales Manager and Northern Sales Rep, Central Sales Rep (Wellington based), and
Southern Sales Rep (Christchurch).
22
http://www.elementmagazine.co.nz/tag/sustainable-business-network/
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Gaining a Slice of the New Zealand Banana Market
In 2008, when All Good Bananas launched, Morrison believed importing Fairtrade bananas
would provide the opportunity to address environmental and social sustainability issues
surrounding the way bananas were grown. But for the business to succeed, and growers to
be given the chance to prosper, people would have to pay a Fairtrade premium on what was
traditionally a low-cost, commodity product. Morrison pointed to evidence from overseas
that consumers might be willing to pay. In 2008, one out of every four bananas sold in the
UK was Fairtrade23 and Morrison claimed that 50% of the bananas sold in Switzerland in
2011 were Fairtrade. But New Zealand was not the UK or Switzerland, and 2008 was the
time of the global financial crisis. “It was a risk,” agreed Morrison, “but so far, so good.”
Although the first preference was to partner with New Zealand’s Pacific Island neighbors,
that strategy had not been successful. Morrison explained, “We experimented with importing
bananas from a women’s co-op in Samoa for about a year. It was a Ladyfinger variety, and
unfortunately, it has a very thin skin. By the time it got here and was on the shelf, it was
looking pretty black.”
All Good Bananas ended up working with a European organization called AgroFair that
specialized in Fairtrade and was supplying European supermarkets among others. AgroFair
called itself “a producer co-owned organization.” 24 Morrison put it this way: “They are partly
owned by the growers, a very positive story. They said they could help us so we partnered
with them in 2010 and started bringing in Cavendish bananas from a cooperative in El
Guabo, Ecuador.”
The food miles involved – over 11 000 kilometers - were far greater than those involved if
importing from the neighboring Pacific had succeeded, but there were other advantages
according to Morrison: “We have over 400 small farmers, family growers, and they grow very
good bananas, the Cavendish bananas that we eat every day. They grow both organic and
non-organic Fairtrade bananas and we bring in both.”
For Morrison, the concept of Fairtrade was “about giving people a fair price for their
products and for their labors.” He elaborated on what he perceived as the impact of
Fairtrade, “Unfortunately, there is still a lot of corruption in the developing world. We may
think we are doing the best thing for people by giving them foreign aid, but only a percentage
of that goes into the right hands. Fairtrade is independently audited, the producers get paid a
fair wage and the community co-operatives receive a premium. They work democratically,
and can choose to spend it on education, medical facilities or more farming equipment.” 25
A Fairtrade banana with those benefits cost more and was priced higher to compensate.
According to the All Good Bananas website: “On average you’ll pay NZ$2.99 for a normal
bunch, or you can pay NZ$3.99 for an All Good extraordinary bunch. When you buy one
you’re instantly helping to provide things like, free medical care, food baskets, and improved
Smith, 2009
www.agrofair.nl/site/agrofair/organisation.html
25 Lamb & Kenworthy, 2011
23
24
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access to education for workers and families. Some parents are even sending their children
to college for the first time! And that’s just the start of the impact our bananas have.”26
Morrison saw it as all part of the sustainability story – sustainability for all.
The All Good team did not rely on Fairtrade certification alone to ensure positive
environmental and social practices from the co-op in Ecuador, but traveled and talked to the
farmers themselves. Morrison explained,” we visit the growers, make sure that what we are
saying is true, and that we have been transparent.” The stories from the growers are videotaped and posted on the company website.
Shortly after All Good Bananas entered the New Zealand market with New Zealand’s first
Fairtrade bananas, Dole New Zealand introduced its own “Ethical Choice” bananas, priced at
NZ$2.49. Although Dole was ISO 14001 (related to environmental management systems)
and ISO 22000 certified (related to food safety), unlike Fairtrade, there was no third party
audit to validate that Dole’s bananas were ‘ethical’. Dole’s label was a statement that Dole
itself considered its bananas ethical.
Steve Barton, Dole New Zealand’s market
representative, said that Dole “had always had a corporate responsibility program and just
thought it was time for the world to know about it.” 27 In August 2012, New Zealand’s
Commerce Commission warned Dole that it’s Ethical Choice marketing campaign may be in
breach of the Fair Trading Act. 28 Both the Dole and the All Good bananas featured eco-labels,
with All Good’s being a plastic band wrapped around the bunch, a requirement of retailers
not wanting the brands confused and undercharging to occur at the checkout.
Special Challenges in New Zealand
Not only were there big players to contend with in the banana production and marketing
world, relatively big players also dominated the New Zealand grocery industry. Since 2002,
the supermarket industry in New Zealand was essentially a duopoly. Australian-owned
Progressive Enterprises had consolidated into a single brand of supermarkets in Countdown.
The other company, “proudly 100% New Zealand owned and operated” 29 Foodstuffs, owned
the Pak’nSave, New World and Four Square brands of supermarkets and grocery stores.
Progressive had been gaining market share on industry leader Foodstuffs, moving from 41%
in 2009 to 45.5% by 2012 of the NZ$17.4B industry. According to a 10-year study of 30
countries conducted by the OECD, New Zealand recorded the second highest increase in
supermarket prices over the decade of the 2000s, an increase of almost 43%. 30 There were
other much smaller players selling groceries in New Zealand such as six-store chain Nosh
and three-store organics provider Huckleberry Farms. Specialty fruit and vegetable shops
were common with around 560 independent stores like Fruit World operating in May 2012.
www.allgoodbananas.co.nz
“'Greenwashing': Consumers beware.” (7 November 2011).
www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5917931/Greenwashing-Consumers-beware, Accessed 13 June 2012.
28 www.idealog.co.nz/news/2012/08/doles-ethical-choice-label-hot-water-comcom
29 www.foodstuffs.co.nz
30 Bowden, 2012
26
27
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However, the sale of fruit in New Zealand was dominated by sales through Foodstuffs and
Progressive.
In 2012, All Good sold bananas to the two big supermarket chains as well as numerous
smaller players. However, sales to Progressive were on a trial basis in June 2012 with no
long-term contract secured. Foodstuffs took care of distribution to stores themselves. “We
send the banana order to their main warehouse,” explained Morrison, “and then they put it
on their trucks with all the other bits and pieces that go to individual stores. But we also
have independent customers such as Nosh or Fruit World. We deal with those customers by
distributing through Fresh Direct, a New Zealand-wide distributer of fruit, vegetables and
flowers. And then we have our organic business which is all the health food stores,
cooperatives, and again that is distributed through Fresh Direct.”
Gorilla Tactics And Social Media
All Good had begun marketing through social media in 2008. By 2012, a third of total staff
time was focused on social media. Marketing and Communications Manager, Julia Collins
said that social media was just another way to talk to people, albeit many more at one time.
“I think social media and the online marketing has been one of our most powerful tools, the
Twitter presence, the Facebook presence, and also the networks of the Fairtrade university
groups and going into schools … and talking to them. It sounds hard but it has actually been
easy, surprisingly easier than I thought, finding those advocates because they often come to
you.”
Collins said consumers liked the image of “a cool kiwi company” that helped people out, and
was part of the community. A key strategy was to link social media campaigns to campaigns
offline. One of the favorites had been a large stuffed gorilla that went to events and
promotions and tracked online. “That was the most bizarre situation last year where we got
invited to the Fairtrade Parliament afternoon tea, so we took the gorilla along. We have got
this big hairy gorilla posing with all these politicians. I don’t think anyone else could have got
away with it; that was one of my proudest moments,” explained Collins.
Metiria Turei, Green Party Co-Leader, with All Good Gorilla in the New Zealand Parliament
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A key part of All Good’s online profile was giving back to the community. Collins explained,
“If people come to us, we make sure we actually help them out where we can. If there is an
event and you can give bananas, then that is awesome. We love helping people out when they
want to do some activity. It’s a lot of leg work, but you do get results, there is momentum
that you can build.”
By 2012, 65 percent of New Zealanders with online access were on Facebook. 31 Ninety
percent of the 20-24 age range were Facebook members. All Good had more than 5,000
people who “liked” it on Facebook. McDonald’s New Zealand had 211,000 “likes.”
McDonald’s also employed more than 9,000 people and in 2009 spent NZ$145 million
buying goods and services in New Zealand. 32 That was almost as much as the entire banana
market that All Good was trying to get a small slice of. Nevertheless, the All Good team saw
they could leverage social media to engage with consumers – current and potential.
The All Good team saw their target market more broadly than a younger Facebook crowd.
Collins explained, “I think it is actually a cross-section, and within that group there are core
people, definitely university youth and high school students understand Fairtrade. So we
have that target of people who understand Fairtrade who aren’t necessarily making the
purchasing decisions. Then you have the group that they influence - i.e. their parents who
they send into the store and say: ‘Mum I really want you to buy those bananas, you need to
buy those bananas.’ Then there are also the eco-people who understand ethical
consumerism, who are a massive cross-section. We have people from teens to 60 year olds
who support Fairtrade.”
Because social media was new, All Good elected to take a fresh approach. Its Social Media
Manager, Petra Mihaljevich, explained, “To start out it was pretty fluid because we were kind
of learning as we went. A lot of that early stuff we did was around getting our name out there
and raising the number of people following us. We had a lot of early adopters, and advocates
were getting on board and just getting the word out.” All Good used social media to ask
people to encourage local stores to stock its Fairtrade bananas. The strategy had found some
success with Foodstuffs who used a co-operative structure that left significant decisionmaking authority at store level. However, Progressive, with a centralized corporate structure
had not been responsive.
Mihaljevich noted that engaging with people on social media did not have to be about heavy
stuff like stopping poverty in developing countries, and it could be personal. “It is engaging
in what topics are popular or trendy, even if it is about the weather or something that you
have cooked that day. Probably the biggest learning, especially with something like Twitter
or Facebook, is engaging with people and getting them to talk to you and respond, and
actually developing a relationship. Rather than just sending stuff to them, or shouting at
them about the brand story, it is actually about trying to engage them.”
In March 2012, All Good asked people to pledge a bunch of bananas via its Facebook page to
four low-income schools in New Zealand. By June, the target of 5,000 pledged bunches had
31
32
www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/new-zealand
www.socialbakers.com/facebook-pages/151998681485862-mcdonald-s-nz
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been reached, which All Good matched with 20,000 bunches from the company. The
bananas are delivered weekly to the schools by All Good Bananas in partnership with The
KidsCan Charitable Trust. News reports featured All Good founder Simon Coley saying:
“Children going hungry is not just a developing world problem. Thousands of Kiwi kids go to
school without having had a proper breakfast. We wanted to help do something about it and
so did 5,000 people who pledged a bunch via our Facebook page. Thanks to them, we’re
delighted to be donating 25,000 bunches. It is just a small step but we hope it will help the
children at each of these schools get a good start.”
Up Against Big Bananas
Communication Manager, Collins, described what she saw as All Good’s competitive
advantage, “I think we are doing well because we are local, we are a New Zealand company
and New Zealanders fight for the underdog. I think that is a really key point as to why people
like All Good, because the other players in the market are very global, focused on mass-scale
mass-production, and aren’t necessarily invested in New Zealand per se, so I think that
benefits us immensely. I think that New Zealandness is inherent in the way we behave as
well, we can get away with a lot more things than other corporations can do because we are a
New Zealand company and we know naturally how to behave, which means it is quite hard to
explain why we think we are doing so well, because a lot of it is natural behavior.”
The All Good team did not underestimate the resistance of the competition to its entry into
the market. Morrison explained, “Well a one percent market share difference is a big deal for
these corporate groups, so they are fighting each other and anybody new that comes in. They
will lose a million dollars a month for six months and not blink an eye.” There have been
other banana players who came into the market and not survived. “Most people are amazed
that we would even consider it,” Morrison said.
There were other challenges. “Bananas are ordered for six weeks in advance and I have no
idea what competitors are ordering”, admitted Morrison. “So it’s a very difficult market
because we think our sales are going quite well, and suddenly the bananas arrive and then
somebody else’s bananas are on sale.”
To avoid price wars, which he considered did no good for growers either, Morrison wanted
All Good to move beyond price and he saw social media as a key to doing so. “We are about
adding value and so we are trying to connect with consumers on an ethical level by saying
our bananas are a little bit more expensive than other bananas, but here is the extra value,
this is what the grower is getting, this is the supply chain, here is the transparency. For an
extra dollar or so a week, consumers can buy Fairtrade bananas and feel better about what
they are doing.”
The New Zealand supermarkets would not stock All Good Bananas if the company was
openly critical of the competition. So neither the All Good website nor its Facebook pages
made any direct criticism of competitors. The social and environmental damage caused by
the large scale banana plantation system was noted, but without any associated blame.
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When one of All Goods “friends” on Facebook asked, “Are these 'ethical choice' bananas OK?
So far we haven't got Fairtrade bananas in Oamaru so we're wondering if these Dole bananas
are really what they say they are?” the reply was muted. “Good question. It's a label Dole
have added themselves. All we can say is that we think Fairtrade is the best independent
scheme which helps our growers' family-owned farms prosper and work themselves out of
poverty.” Steve Barton, the New Zealand representative of Dole Asia, offered a contrasting
argument in explaining Dole's policies for paying its workers in the Philippines: "You can't
throw money at these people because they'll just spend it on silly things. You need to provide
the infrastructure around them.''
In its formal marketing Dole continued pushing the sustainability message quite hard.
When it was appointed as the tournament supplier of fresh and canned fruit to the Rugby
World Cup tournament held in New Zealand in 2011, Dole’s press release emphasized its
“stringent environmental and social program.” 33
Bunches of Future Options
Back on Piha Beach, the three All Good co-founders recalled that early on, they had set a
long-term goal of capturing 10 percent of the banana market. By June 2012, All Good had
exceeded its sales objectives and was half-way to achieving that goal. All Good had
positioned itself in terms of Fairtrade bananas and found a segment of the market where its
message resonated. However, it was likely that attracting more market share from
mainstream consumers was going to be an increasingly difficult proposition. One grocery
executive noted that “the average New Zealander is unwilling to pay much of a premium for
organic or Fairtrade food. The reality is for most New Zealanders they cannot afford the
difference. The only really successful organics, free-range or Fairtrade products are those
with very low premiums over alternatives.” 34
The co-founders understood the difficulty and they were considering options. All Good
could stick to bananas and aggressively pursue another five or even 10 percent of market
share. The co-founders felt there was room left in the “conscious consumer” segment of the
market but wondered how much further the company’s guerilla social media tactics could
push it on a limited budget. From here on, they knew, every additional percentage of market
share would be more expensive to capture and more fiercely resisted by the dominant
players. They were not sure how much money and effort they should put into that battle. All
Good’s current pricing, they felt, was about where it should be.
Another option would be to diversify into products other than fresh bananas, while retaining
the ethical, Fairtrade branding. The co-founders had said that this option had appeal, “We
would like to introduce more products under the All Good brand,” Morrison said. He
continued,” We could go back to my roots and introduce a line of drinks. We are looking at
33
34
http://dolenz.co.nz/news/details/dole-is-appointed-fruit-supplier.html
Bowden, 2012.
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coconut cream from Samoa, and we have a few other bits and pieces we are interested in, like
Fairtrade rice, Fairtrade sugar. We are now into dried bananas, from women in Samoa. They
dry it to add value and we sell it. We think there is a good market for that, potentially it is in
health food stores and delis; but we think it is even potentially bigger where it could go to the
supermarkets and potentially to all petrol stations etc. We could expand to pineapples,
papaya, and mango. We are quite interested in telling the story on the packaging. In terms of
marketing, it is quite a complex thing to try and get any added value out of Fairtrade for bulk
bins and things like that.”
The All Good co-founders knew that a traditional business model would pursue growth by
cutting costs to increase profits and hopefully boost sales. But in a sustainability model
which promoted Fairtrade, cutting costs to appeal to more buyers would mean reducing the
premium paid to growers or squeezing margins below profitability – and that would not be
sustainable for a small company like All Good. Just like the loss leader bananas in UK
supermarkets, a price war would mean less income available for growers, undermining All
Good’s primary interest in Fairtrade. With waves crashing all around them, the founders
knew that All Good’s strategy moving forward would have to account for changing tides in
the market.
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