Posted on January 30, 2010.
How to make it big in the chocolate Sophie Hobson explores William Curley success in the most delicious chocolate market.
Vegetable fat, demineralised whey powder, glucose syrup, soy lecithin, E422. Sharpening your appetite? Get your digestive juices all frothing with excitement? Think not. But these ingredients are sounding disgusting what goes in your chocolate. Or at least, the chocolate according to the mass market. Perhaps for a moment we should leave the streets of rubbish produced in series of shock, as these unsavory characters were the main actors, and enter the world of premium chocolate business.
It is a glorious, indulgent and Crafts architect, where whispers of ganache and gold leaf on the edges of each other in a beautiful coiffed curls, where fishing and rosemary tiptoe all through your taste buds through the deep dark clouds of cocoa, and where all the bad, unappetizing constituents of chocolate manufactured in series are indeed prohibited. It is the world of William Curley . He runs a pastry shop with chocolate combined in Richmond, with his wife Suzu. The shop is called William Curley, and this year he was voted Best Chocolatier of the year for the second consecutive year by the Academy of Chocolate.
"It took me years to understand and respect the ingredients and form," he said. Curley learned the trade in Michelin starred restaurants. "If you were a company mass-produced, you can simply use the handlers food and pay their hourly rate. But it's really a different product. "
Consumers seem increasingly aware of this distinction. The chocolate industry has seen a sales increase of 10% overall between 2005 and 2007, according to Mintel, but sales of dark chocolate of the highest quality, but generally more expensive in the short doubled to £ 85m during period. Sales of premium chocolate grew almost twice the figure of over £ 140m, an increase of 46% for the sector, with the same period. Capitalizing on the increasing popularity of late despite the recession , the confectionery giant Nestled is this month launching a range of luxury chocolates with flavors like green cardamom caramel and salted butter - very close to simple offerings of milk, white or black.
But quality means increased increased overheads. Curley plus expenses - outside premises - are the ingredients and the staff . It invests in professional cooks - three are on learning, and he kept some staff for three or four years. "If I want to make a success of it, I know I just can not make loans. I need levels of people with skills, confidence and desire to work for the brand."
He admitted, however, that this is not particularly profitable in the short term. "All that we can not make money, but sometimes the way we do things does not help."
It makes a margin on each product, but some are more effective than others. "The truffles there is possibility of making money, for sure," he said. "And we use the hot chocolate and tea, and of course there is room on the drinks - it's part more profitable to any company. "This helps balance the pastry section of the company, so a small margin. He also stressed the importance of Christmas, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day." Y.
