IN this week’s SME Focus we hear from two food lovers whose decision to buck the healthy eating trend when they started producing their own chocolate seems to have paid off.
Name:
Ish Broadbent.
Age:
33.
What is your business called?
Ocelot Chocolate Ltd.
Where is it based?
Edinburgh.
What does it produce?
Single origin craft chocolate bars, handmade direct from the beans, or combined with ingredients such as Hebridean Sea Salt or Bee Pollen & Mango.
Whom does it sell to?
Wholesale to retail, also direct to customers through our website. Stockists include independent shops and delicatessens, and also prestigious stores such as Selfridges & Co, Fenwick, de Bijenkorf in Amsterdam, Robinsons Singapore, City’Super Hong Kong. We launched in Ole and K11 in China in October.
What is its turnover?
£50,000 but rising rapidly.
How many employees?
Two – myself and my husband Matt.
When was it formed?
January 2014.
Why did you take the plunge?
Food has been the focus of our relationship since day one – even our first kiss (in 2009) was behind a fridge door – and after a month we were planning our future business. At first we were drawn into the trap of thinking we had to do something different and flirted with the idea of making 'healthy' chocolates, but ultimately they didn’t taste as good as we wanted. So we decided to just make the best chocolate in the world, using what we thought were the finest ingredients and beautiful packaging. You don’t have to be the only company doing something, but you should aim to be the best.
What were you doing before you took the plunge?
Matt was working for Santander bank in Glasgow and I was managing a cake shop in Merchant City. We both went to Madras College in St Andrews but didn’t meet each other until a New Year’s Party during our mid-20s. We knew we had to get a stronger understanding of the food industry and earn some stripes before we could start a business so we moved to Italy to work as chefs. From there we went on to cook in a luxury chalet in France then as live-in private chefs, which allowed us to save money to start the business. We were itching to go it alone, so we got married and started the business a week later.
How did you raise the start-up funding?
We started the business with just £12,000, so it has been a very hand-to-mouth existence for us, buying equipment and evolving piece-by-piece when we can.
What was your biggest break?
Within two weeks of posting our first picture on Instagram we had Selfridges and Harvey Nichols both bidding for exclusivity and from there it just snowballed. In April we won six awards in the Academy of Chocolate and more in the International Chocolate Awards in May, which led to us being approached by distributors and shops around the world.
What was your worst moment?
There were certainly times we questioned what we had done, but ultimately we always came back to saying the same thing - this is what we wanted. We were fortunate enough to be born into a life and a country where we have the opportunity to follow our dream, so grumbling about long days making chocolate and not being able to afford nice things is pretty spoilt.
What do you most enjoy about running the business?
We love working together and being our own bosses, but most of all we are extremely proud of what we do. Making chocolate is a very demanding and temperamental process, and it is a constant learning curve – but that is part of the fun.
This business encapsulates everything we love and are good at. We can combine our interest in fine flavours and scientific processes with our love of art, fashion, design and nature. We have wonderful customers and we feel like we are a part of a global creative community.
What do you least enjoy?
Asking people for money. We look forward to the day we hand that job over to someone else. We want to assume the best in people but we learnt early on that doesn’t always work. Making money is important, but so is feeling good about what we’ve done to earn it. In two years we’ve only had one minor customer complaint, but we still see that as a failure.
What are your ambitions for the firm?
Our vision has always been to be an internationally renowned brand that honours Scotland as a country producing the very best in quality, taste, and creativity. We are already exporting to seven countries and that’s growing with every month. We want to make a lot more chocolate straight from the bean and also grow our range to include some more accessibly priced products.
What is your top priority?
Meeting demand. We desperately need larger premises, more equipment and our first employees. We also need to further assert our intellectual property (IP) around the world. We recently received a grant from Scottish Enterprise for an IP audit, which was carried out by IP firm Marks and Clerk. They understood our business and their experts brought home to us how important it is to protect ourselves in territories we plan to operate in. As a result, we’ve registered trade marks in China, Hong Kong and the EU. Finding the money to do all that is our main obstacle, but we’ve made it this far so we just keep going.
What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?
For us it’s frustrating that funding is only really available for specific services which often do little to really move SMEs forward. We wish the government would trust us to spend the money where it is needed most, instead of diverting it via ‘expert advice’ and workshops, which it feels can often be underwhelming. Some of the help can feel outdated, but we have had a good experience with Scottish Enterprise regarding IP and some aspects of export. What SMEs need is core practical funding to help make it off the ground, not PowerPoint presentations from marketing companies.
What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?
Don’t try to please everyone. Be patient and your true customers will find you. We have listened and evolved when we needed to, but ultimately we’ve had total confidence in our vision. It’s easy to fall into the trap of listening to every little bit of advice and opinion, but it can lead to a jumbled message and a disconnected brand. We were told that we would never stand a chance of exporting because we didn’t look ‘Scottish’ enough; that we should change all our packaging. We didn’t listen and now we can hardly keep up with the demand.
How do you relax?
For a long time we didn’t take days off but it becomes counter productive. Taking time to enjoy and be inspired by life is essential to keeping a company fresh and dynamic, so we try to take weekends off when we can; go for a long bike ride, try out a new coffee shop, visit a gallery, spend a few hours on the couch watching cookery programs.
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