No, it's not similar to running just another candy/chocolate company. So, this week’s blog is for that chocolate enthusiast who wants to start his/her bean-to-bar brand. We get it, the middle class is growing, people want to spend their bucks on premium products, and the Indian chocolate market is expected to reach a whopping US$ 5.3 Billion by 2032! It seems like there’s no better time than this to launch your bean-to-bar brand
BUT
You may want to read what we have to say first. And, having been in the business for almost a decade along with the tag of India’s first fair trade and organic bean-to-bar brand, who better than us to honestly talk about our struggles in running a bean-to-bar chocolate brand:
-
Production Will Cost You $$$: Now if you’re in the business of making real chocolate, you cannot compromise on the very ingredient that is the core of your brand aka cacao beans. So, sourcing high-quality cocoa beans, especially from sustainable and fair-trade sources, will be expensive. Additionally, you will need to bear the price of specialized equipment required for the bean-to-bar process, like roasters, grinders, and tempering machines, which again can be quite costly.
-
Upfront working capital & longer credit periods to your debtors. With the recent cacao crisis many bean suppliers require cash upfront, or atleast a part payment for procurement. This clubbed with the longer credit periods that are needed by your retailer/distributor makes cash flow a critical matrix to track.
-
Temperature Fluctuations: In addition to being a low shelf-life product, chocolate is sensitive to temperature fluctuations. We ourselves have experienced numerous nightmarish episodes of our confections melting, either in transit or at factory level! We at Pascati solved this by doubling the density of the thermocol boxes we ship our chocolates in, switching to an ice gel pack, and also replacing our logistic supplier with another one who delivered within just 24-36 hours across India. This, however, isn’t a cookie-cutter solution for all and you will have to fix these issues depending on where and when the melting is happening. But do be prepared for these kinds of unexpected losses.
-
Educate, Inform & Aware: While the chocolate market in India is growing steadily and there is an increase in the number of homegrown chocolate brands, the idea of bean-to-bar is still relatively new. A huge part of your job will also involve educating consumers about the differences between bean-to-bar chocolate and mass-produced chocolate/compound chocolate can be challenging and tedious, especially in a price-sensitive market like India. You can achieve this through different communication channels like social media, website, packaging, blogs, newsletters, etc. (Pascati’s blog section is a great starting point for this, just saying)
Having listed all of the above struggles, we want to make it clear that this isn’t to demotivate you at all. It’s just to be as transparent as possible. We hope you build the brand of your dreams and in doing so also contribute to uplifting our hard-working cacao farmers.
Team Pascati
