As a market leader, GCB’s expansion to the Ivory Coast also ensures the sustainability of cocoa as well as its beans, and fortifies its commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles across its operations. Being near its farmers has allowed GCB to efficiently plan and carry out sustainability projects on the farms, support the farming communities, and ascertain that its supply chain remains deforestation-free.

Some of GCB’s best practices that have been accredited, besides being a listed company, include a Sustainability certification endorsed by Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certification, a Halal and Kosher certification, and several certifications under the Food Safety Management System (FSSC22000, ISO 22000, and HACCP).

More importantly, GCB attributes its success to its experienced management team that has been agile in implementing timely business strategies relative to market changes, a collaborative working culture, a thorough hiring process, and having its processes audited by its MNC customers in a transparent way, which has culminated in the release of inaugural integrated annual reports.

Moving forward, GCB sees inflation as the most significant challenge the industry will have to face in the coming years. Besides comparing costs from suppliers while also ensuring no compromise in the quality of materials, GCB is circumventing the rise in labour costs through automation projects, mitigating the rise in energy costs by installing solar panels across its facilities, and overcoming interest hikes by pricing them into product costing.

Internally, GCB offers a competitive salary, remuneration packages, and other benefits. With its growth and expansion reliant on its most valuable asset, its people, GCB also places emphasis on work-life balance and career development, and prioritises employee development through its Management Development Training Program, which involves attachments and training in various departments as well as opportunities to participate in projects in its overseas subsidiaries, a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) framework to ascertain suitable training and learning processes for employees, and the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that provides support to employees with regard to personal or work-related problems.

Mirroring its company name, GCB’s CSR program is aptly named “Good Cocoa and Beyond”, and ensures a sustainable cocoa supply by improving farmer income, benefiting farmers and their community, protecting the environment, and providing responsible cocoa towards achieving its goal of delivering 100% traceable and sustainable cocoa from its direct cocoa sourcing network by 2030. As a company, GCB also spearheads other activities across 3 pillars – Happy Employees, Thriving Communities, and Healthy Planet – under its “Caring Beyond Cocoa” program.

As ACES’ Industry Champions of the Year, GCB knocks its competitors out of the park through its steady growth and recognises the collective effort its people have put into growing the business for the past 30 years. GCB also thanks its employees for being a part of this journey, and hopes to attract more talent to work towards becoming a bigger multinational company.