Chocaid maps out tasty idea for Third World

SETTING up a chocolate company to give away part of its revenue to the Third World isn't the average business plan but Chocaid in Kinsale is determined to make it a success.

A chocolate company with a difference, its products include an award winning chocolate globe, a chocolate map of Africa and a bar of fair trade chocolate, with a percentage of the sale proceeds going to Gorta projects in Africa, South America and Asia.

Set up by husband and wife team Alan and Gwen Clayton two years ago, Chocaid now has products on sale in 70 outlets around Ireland and has just started selling into the British market.

London-born Alan and Armagh-born Gwen both worked in the marketing department of Asda until Alan attended a personal development seminar which led him to question the usefulness of his career.

After that they moved to the Lake District and set up an environment-friendly tea shop.

This venture didn't really work out but the couple got involved in personal development coaching for multinational companies which opened up new opportunities for them and they subsequently moved to Ireland and set up home in Kinsale.

It was there that they decided to build this rather original chocolate company.

"We put two pieces of information together to come up with the idea the first is that most people like chocolate or buy it and second, that most people care about the developing world.''

Only the affluent can afford chocolate so he thought it was equitable that chocolate should be used to generate some revenue for the poor in Third World countries. It's a variation on the Robin Hood idea selling to the rich to give to the poor, he explains.

The other part of the idea in creating Chocaid was to allow purchasers of the chocolate to pick which project they want the money to go to and they can do this by logging on to company website.

The first product was the chocolate globe and while the idea of creating one might seem easy getting it produced wasn't.

"We spent £5,000 on a mould from a Belgian company it took a year and was finally ready one week after Easter in 2001," reveals Alan.

But the company received a major boost when the globe won a British Great Taste award in late 2001.

The globe is made for Chocaid by Lily O'Brien's chocolate company, which also makes the champagne and honeycomb truffles which Chocaid launched later in 2001.

Two Chocaid products couldn't be made in Ireland the chocolate map of Africa is made in Scotland and the fair-trade chocolate bar is made in Switzerland.

The plan at the beginning was to sell on the website and give a third of the sale price to Gorta.

However the Claytons discovered that they couldn't generate sufficient traffic on the web and decided to sell the products on the retail market.

Chocaid now gives €1 of the cost of each €15 globe and 15 cent of the fair trade choc bar which cost €2.65 to Gorta.

"People might think that this isn't a big percentage but by the time we pay VAT of 21%, give 25% to the distributor, pay at least 25% to the retailer and pay for the cost of the product and the packaging there isn't much left,'' says Alan.

In its first year, Chocaid had a turnover of €40,000, but since the launch of its fair trade bar last October it has generated a turnover of €200,000.

To date it has given €10,000 to Gorta. The Claytons are continuing to do personal development coaching to pay the bills and finance the development of the company. Having started Chocaid with savings of £10,000 they have now received a loan of €30,000 from the Cork Enterprise Board and are using this to employ a part-time salesperson, take Chocaid products to trade shows and develop some new products.

Business has improved considerably since the launch of the fair trade bar.

"Since then we have sold in excess of 30,000 bars. It now accounts for 30% of sales and we now have sales to around 70 outlets including 20 Superquin and 30 Dunnes stores,'' says Alan.

Six weeks ago, Chocaid filled its first order for the British market 10,000 fair trade bars for a health food chain. Alan is hoping that by the end of this year the company can achieve a turnover of €330,000 and break even.

He says that if plans to develop sales to Europe and the US work out Chocaid could achieve a turnover of €2 million within a few years. He firmly believes that Chocaid can succeed.

"What we have set out to do is create a business that stands on its own two feet and gives money to projects as well," Alan says.