CACAO : A GLOBAL SOCIAL MISSION
It all started in December 2004 for Guillaume Hermitte. He was a simple French student of 20 when he had a chocolate he was never to forget. It was in Oaxaca, a town in the south of Mexico. He was totally flabbergasted by the "traditional" taste of the production of the chocolate factory and became interested in its processes. Once back in Paris, carried away by this new kind of love at first sight, he seriously looked into the chocolate business. He had not graduated from the ESSEC yet (one of the three best business school of Paris), but in respect to an ethic he owed to his family, he was lead to start a professional project with a strong aftertaste of social and collective value.

That is why, as soon as he got back from his trip, he decided, basing himself on his classes, to start up this project. After a very accurate market study, he truly became committed the creation of a business that would be very responsible, and that would have as target the concept of a supply shop specialised in cacao and chocolate.

This trip, as much as a reflection over international trade, lead him to put into practice the principles of fair trade. He created his branch of direct importation with small producers of cacao in Venezuela in order to put the liability of that kind of business to test. This country, which is internationally known for the high quality of its cacao, appeared as a very interesting alternative of governance that should be followed closely.

When you are 24, choosing to be a social entrepreneur is most of all an ideological choice.
Globalization prevents today's policies from advocating social advances, whereas the associative world depends too much on exterior funds to be autonomous in its missions. Guillaume Hermitte realized the entrepreneurs had to take bigger responsibilities in the putting into place of principles of good local governance, whether it be national or international. According to him, Capitalism, as the dominant economic system, would become less wild if its "bosses" committed themselves to being less wild. His society was to bear the name of "Choc'ethic.

He first created, in Venezuela, a commercial relationship with a micro-business made up of several little producers and transformers of cacao who do not only take care of their plantations, but who also buy cacao to those who can't afford transforming it. This agreement was made to encourage the creation of an added value in the country and in the community, maximizing the number of transformations operated locally. Right from the beginning, the young French men, as a partner to development, was eager to formalize mutual commitments.

As regards Choc'ethic, those commitments deal with four points essential to the upholding of the branch.Firstly, the society commits itself to buying cacao from these producers for at least five years and to guarantee them a minimum buying price of the transformed cacao, so that they can't be prejudiced by the strong tendency of lowering of market prices. Moreover, It shall pay 50% of the total price of the orders right away. Eventually, it helps improving the methods and the working tools of the producers/transformers by giving them, once a year, a development bonus of 200 euros per each ton of cacao bought.

For the latter, the conditions are ethical. They ought to respect the minimum buying price of cacao with the producer to whom they are buying it and to pay their employees correctly, that is more than the minimum wage, and mostly without any delay. They are also asked to maintain equality between men and women and to guarantee decent working conditions for their workers. Their last obligation is to buy and to transform a cacao that is produced in respect of the environment, and that is treated with natural compost. The requirements of the producers are guaranteed by a local NGO called Accion Campesina. It makes annual reports of the advancement of the projects.

Beyond fair trade, he wanted to run a business which would have a social impact on his own land. The choice of the concept of a business of insertion won over because it is in-between the classic entrepreneurial world and the associative world as it mingles the issues of profit with the care to accompany workers in difficulty.

The concept of a business of insertion is the one of an organization mixing values from both the world of the enterprise and the associative world in order to narrow the gap between those two worlds which are too often in conflict in Western societies. This is precisely in this spirit that the young man wanted to act. He still remains very pragmatic. In other words, he does not fear to make profit. As soon as one commits himself to a certain number of strong values, of strong constrains, linked to the respect of Mankind, it seems that profit - far from being a betrayal - ought to be an objective. According to him, the most important still remains to be attentive to the sharing of the wealth created: to the investors, but also to the employees throughout profit-sharing; to the producers throughout development bonuses, and to the associative partners.

That is why, meanwhile he built up his business plan, Guillaume Hermitte was eager to know how a business of insertion works on a daily basis. Is it simple? Are there conflicts of authority, problems of punctuality, a good enough understanding of the tasks? There is no better way to figure out those questions than to get involved in this world. That is why he immediately asked to go on a training course in a business of caterer with the project of a chocolate lab. Right away, the assessment was positive: his perception of reality went beyond his wildest dreams… and usual reluctances.


This experience entailed the idea of a subcontracting between "La table de Cana", located in Gennevilliers, near Paris, and his society "Choc'ethic". This way, Guillaume Hermitte was to be able to concentrate on the development of the brand "Puerto Cacao" and his supply shop, with the subcontracting of the manufacture of the fine chocolate goods to take-away. This agreement allowed him to externalize many risks - such as the one of the investors and fixed charges like salaries and machines - while keeping a full control of his range of products. However, "La Table de Cana" had to get supplies only from fair suppliers.

Along with that, the emblematic shop of Puerto Cacao, Tocqueville Street, Paris, was organized as a "chocolate workshop" meanwhile bearing in mind its environmental impact. All was done in respect of that: ecologic isolation, natural covering, and small voltage lightning. As the concept involved a certain number of non-specialized activities, staff still needed be employed: Four employees were hired, throughout contracts of insertion. The shop opened on October 20, 2006, using natural wrapping papers for its delicious ethical chocolates.

Being a social entrepreneur seems to be bringing luck to Guillaume Hermitte, so much that his society made 153 000 euros of profit in the first year and is likely to gain 240 000 euros of profit in the second year. In here lies, undoubtedly, the answer to the question he is often asked, that-is-to-say if it is possible to apply all those principles on all those different levels (staff, raw material, fair trade and social responsibility) and to still make profit. Not to mention that beyond the objectives of his activity lies for our young business man a crucial issue: reducing to the outmost the environmental print of his business.

And whenever he is asked the question of his future, he answers: "the respect of values, and of human constraints, is for me a lot easier to ensure if it is done throughout human organizations. That is why, though I wanted to create an economic business that is likely to be strong in the future, I want to make this entity grow by duplicating a certain number of little structures of the size of a shop, for example, that would systematize a work of insertion of proximity, in harmony with the issues of people in insertion".
The putting into place of such a project lead by such a young man, a man who is so much involved in his commitment for a fair world, a man creating harmony in social interplays that are usually so tense would almost make us forget that all of this is linked to the production of a piece of goods that is deeply anchored in the food heritage and that brings to its consumers pleasure, delight and sweetness: It is none other than the mythical chocolate !