Why we're cooler than Prada, by Green & Blacks founder (VIDEO)

Jo Fairley, who set up Green & Black's with her husband nearly 20 years ago, said all companies should organise team-building activities which work towards the greater good in society.

Ms Fairley added: "I am a great believer in business karma. When you do try to do good with a company, amazing things happen to you. Things you can't possibly predict.

"Magical things happen when you are also focused on something for the greater good."

She recalled how the launch of Maya Gold, the first Fairtrade-marked chocolate bar, coincided with a national campaign to promote Fairtrade certification in supermarkets, which led to vicars lobbying Tesco to stock the bar.

Ms Fairley said: "Every company needs to have a CSR programme in place because although the investors may be looking for nothing but the bottom line and their dividends, there are more and more consumers out there who are looking not just for value in prices paid but for companies with values embedded in them."

She added: "CSR has been crucial to us at Green & Black's from day one. We didn't come up with this policy; it was the way we naturally did business. It became part of our DNA.

"Whether it is guerrilla gardening or decorating homeless hostels, it is fantastic for staff morale and team building."

Ms Fairley made the comments at a conference organised by Vodafone for small businesses in Leeds.

She launched her company in the midst of the last recession in 1991, using 20,000 of her own money to buy two tonnes of chocolate.

Today, Green & Black's has more sales than Marmite and is cooler than Prada, said Ms Fairley.

She added: "There really is only one way to go when you start a business in a recession. Recessions force you to be creative.

"They force you also to look at absolutely everything that you are spending money on, which you don't when everything is coasting along. Companies get very fat during those times.

"You have to be so resourceful and exploit every single opportunity to make up for the fact your budget is tight.

"A little bit of recession every now and then is quite cleansing."

The conference also heard from Geoff Britton, a Barnsley-based accountant and business adviser, who spoke about the importance to SMEs of emerging markets and embracing new technology.

He said: "Leeds is a very small place. So is Yorkshire. So is the UK. Even the EU with 670 million people is only half the size of China.

"The miners' strike of the early 1980s persuaded us, my family businesses, that we could not rely at all on a local market."

He said businesses were being held back by a lack of lending by banks, but Yorkshire is well placed for the recovery with its sizeable population and access to international markets.

A FINGER ON THE PULSE

The sales director for small and medium enterprises at Vodafone gave an insight into the mood among his 150,000 customers.

Rob Shardlow told the conference: "They have been through some tough times but they are much closer to their customers and the market place

and have a finger much more on the pulse than large businesses.

"They have taken out some costs where necessary, but I talk to many more people who are investing in their business and coming to Vodafone with positive, ambitious growth plans."

The event was held at Club LS1 in Leeds and chaired by the Yorkshire Post.