March 20, 2008 - Lindt and Spruengli has announced record earnings for the year 2007. One share of Lindt stock sells for close to
$35,000. In 2007 Lindt saw their net profit rise 19.7%. Sales increased 13.9% in the same period. They also announced they will spend
$758,000,000 over the next three years in product innovation. Sweet China returns to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) today. A deal
with Essential Box Confectionery had fallen through which led to Sweet Chinas share trading to be cancelled in the AIM system. Sweet
China is now completing the deal which will lead to the reinstatement of their shares. Essential Box Confectionery produces Lings Turkish
Delight among other items. The Essential Box products will be sold in China. The story of The New York Chocolate plant in Fulton, New
York has been checkered the last year or so. The former Nestle plant with over a million dollars worth of equipment was taken over by
investors from the Ivory Coast. Then financing fell through and as Civil War in the Ivory Coast distracted the government and their investors
the plant closed down. Their is still a skeleton crew of nine looking after the plant. This week representatives of the Ivory Coast's Ministry of
Justice and representatives of the nation's farmers were in Fulton touring the plant. Hopefully the situation can be resolved and the plants
400 workers can finally get back to manufacturing chocolate. With Easter and St. Patrick's Day falling so close together
March 16, 2008 - Thirty eight restaurants, stores and candy makers joined together to supply chocolate at the annual Hospice Chocolate
Festival for the benefit of the Hospice of South Kentucky in Bowling Green, Kentucky last weekend. Wrigley plans a major revamp of their
packaging and flavors to counter flat sales in 2007. Orbit gum will add sangria fresca, fabulous fruitini and fruit sorbet. Extra gum will add
strawberry banana, berry pearadise, island cooler and sweet watermelon. As well as being a major player in the chewing gum market
Wrigley is also the owners of Korkunov the Russian chocolate manufacturing firm. Glisten the candy and snack manufacturer in the United
Kingdom has announced they had a successful 2007 has the companies earnings took a jump much of what was attributed to the firms
acquisitions. The company acquired 50% of Skinny Candy as well as taking a stake in Dormen Foods and Big Thoughts two snack food
companies. The company increased operating profit 19%. The French supermarket chain Leclerc has announced they will be removing
certain candies from the checkout area and moving them to the confectionery aisle. The company has taken the step even though it will cut
into their profits in response to the government's looking for ways to cut the child obesity rate.
March 11, 2008 - Cadbury has announced a date for its planned demerger of its soft drink division from its confectionary arm. The date is
May 7th and the beverage arm will include Dr. Pepper and Snapple among other brands. Nestle has announced they will be opening a
facility for research into dark and premium chocolate. The company will be working with Pierre Marcolini among others and the facility is
named The Chocolate Centre of Excellence. If you haven't yet seen it this years clucking bunny from Cadbury/Hershey its a cute item. The
rabbit is soft, cute and makes an entertaining sound when squeezed. The rabbit comes with a Cadbury chocolate egg. We saw these for
sale at Walgreens for $6.99 yesterday and think they make a nice Easter basket stuffer.
Chocolat Moderne has created what looks like an the folks at Moderne and remind our readers that over the last few years Moderne has
turned out fine product the folks at Moderne and remind our readers that over the last few years Moderne has turned out fine product after
fine product.
after fine product.
March 6, 2008 - We received an email from Frederique of Trois Crepes Patisserie announcing this years Easter selection. They're
carrying praline Easter eggs that look great. They also have little sardine boxes with 12 chocolate fish. The fish are called Poisson d'Avril
and are for celebrating April 1st. In France kids on April 1st play jokes on grownups by putting paper fishes on their backs. The grownups
then go about their business unaware that they have a paper fish stuck to their back. Swiss news sources are reporting that Cadbury has
created a new European headquarters in Switzerland. The company has been reorganizing over the last year. They've demerged with their
beverage side and have moved much of their manufacturing to Eastern Europe. Cadbury is hoping by combining their operations they will
have a more International operation in place. The Spanish confectionary firm Natra saw an increase of 31% in sales in 2007 over 2006.
Much of the increase can be attributed to the firms acquisition of the Belgium based firm All Crump. They also acquired the Italian brand
Nutkao the second largest chocolate spread brand in Europe behind Ferraro's Nutella. The Finnish firm Cloetta Fazer Confectionery is
changing their packaging in response to criticism that their labeling's character Laku-Pekka is a caricature of a black person that
perpetuates a negative racial stereotype. Starting in April the new wrappers will make their appearance. They will use the previous
wrappers color scheme, black, white and red. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility an organization that represents 300
faith-based investors with over $100bn in invested capital has called upon companies in the food industry to not use genetically modified
(GM) sugar beet. The group has posed their objections on their website. The group fears that allowing GM sugar into the nation's food
chain would affect thousands of commercially available products. Many companies have already announced plans to keep GM products
out of their some of their products. Mc Donalds has announced they will not use GM potatoes and General Mills wont use GM wheat.
Opposition to GM products is much more developed in Europe than here in the States. John & Kiras has once again created a very nice
looking holiday item. These are 64% Valrhona chocolate eggs that come in a nice wooden box and sell for $36 a dozen. Cocoa prices
keep rising and The International Cocoa Organisation has announced that the daily price of cocoa increased 4.6% in January from
December. Hopefully this wont push chocolate prices up to much. Hershey has put up a site for Easter. The site has ideas for Easter
basket making, craft projects and recipes. Vosges Hot - Chocolat has added a new bunny this year to their lineup. Amalfi , White chocolate
bunny infused with lemon zest and pink peppercorn , will be joining Barcelona, Milk chocolate bunny with smoked almonds and grey sea
salt , Gianduja, Milk chocolate with almonds and hazelnut praline and Red Fire Bunny, Dark Chocolate with Mexican chillies and Ceylon
cinnamon.
March 3, 2008 - Sometimes you see corporate partnerships and you wonder why bother and sometimes you wonder what took so long.
The later sums up today's announcement that Starbucks and Hershey will be releasing a line of chocolates under the Starbucks name.
We had the opportunity to sample this line a few weeks back and we are very enthusiastic about the quality of what was offered. Wow the
pairing of Anthony Carroll, Starbucks Coffee Quality Expert, and Ann Brinkerhoff, The Hershey Company's Master Chocolatier, has led to a
dynamite selection of chocolate that can be enjoyed both with coffee or by itself. We are particularly partial to the Citron Dark Chocolate
Tasting Squares. They have a deep chocolate taste with a fragrant hint of citrus. The Chai Milk Chocolate Squares are also a first rate
product. They literally melt on the tongue with a subtle clean taste of Chai. The Chai Truffles are also first rate and if they are coming
packaged in bags of 10 for $5.00 this could be one of the truly great bargains in the business. We also enjoyed the Milk Chocolate covered
Coffee Beans and only wish they would also come in Dark Chocolate. Of the fourteen items that we sampled the only one that we found
wanting was the Dark Chocolate Vanilla Bean Truffles. We found them a little to sweet with an aftertaste that was a bit hard to shake. On an
editorial note it's great to see how Hershey has been able to incorporate the concept of artisan chocolate into their business plan without
compromising quality. We are the first to admit we were a trifle leery when Hershey acquired Joseph Schmidt, Dagoba and Scharffen
Berger. These were three companies that had their own unique visions and we had the natural fear that in a larger corporate culture they
would lose these identities. In our opinion Hershey has done a masterful job with all three companies and their partnership with Starbucks
shows they are flexible and capable of developing new concepts in chocolate and bringing them successfully to the marketplace. The
Starbucks line will be sold in grocery stores and other mass market retailers. The price points are great and we heartily recommend you
take the time to sample the line.
March 1, 2008 - Safeway and Wegmans will now be carrying Chuao Chocolatier's chocolate bars. Chuao product has turned up here in
New York City at the Food Emporium and Whole Foods. We have found there bars to be of excellent quality. Considering Chuao is a
relative newcomer to the field, they opened their doors in 2002, they have done a tremendous job of producing a quality line and getting it
out into the marketplace. The AC Nielsen Company has issued a report for the year 2006. They found while chocolate consumption
increased 3.9% that premium chocolate consumption increased 24%. We'll be interested to see if the market grew at a double digit rate in
2007 as it seems even with all of the good press that chocolate has gotten over the last few years these kind of growth rates are hard to
sustain. Good news for the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in the Orland Square Mall which is a suburb of Chicago. On February
21st two teen age bandits made off with the store's mascot a 30 pound stuffed bear by the name of Truffles. The story made the local news
at the time, see the store's surveillance camera footage of the heist, and caused quite a stir locally. Two teenage girls came into the store
and provided information which should lead to the recovery of the bear.
$35,000. In 2007 Lindt saw their net profit rise 19.7%. Sales increased 13.9% in the same period. They also announced they will spend
$758,000,000 over the next three years in product innovation. Sweet China returns to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) today. A deal
with Essential Box Confectionery had fallen through which led to Sweet Chinas share trading to be cancelled in the AIM system. Sweet
China is now completing the deal which will lead to the reinstatement of their shares. Essential Box Confectionery produces Lings Turkish
Delight among other items. The Essential Box products will be sold in China. The story of The New York Chocolate plant in Fulton, New
York has been checkered the last year or so. The former Nestle plant with over a million dollars worth of equipment was taken over by
investors from the Ivory Coast. Then financing fell through and as Civil War in the Ivory Coast distracted the government and their investors
the plant closed down. Their is still a skeleton crew of nine looking after the plant. This week representatives of the Ivory Coast's Ministry of
Justice and representatives of the nation's farmers were in Fulton touring the plant. Hopefully the situation can be resolved and the plants
400 workers can finally get back to manufacturing chocolate. With Easter and St. Patrick's Day falling so close together
March 16, 2008 - Thirty eight restaurants, stores and candy makers joined together to supply chocolate at the annual Hospice Chocolate
Festival for the benefit of the Hospice of South Kentucky in Bowling Green, Kentucky last weekend. Wrigley plans a major revamp of their
packaging and flavors to counter flat sales in 2007. Orbit gum will add sangria fresca, fabulous fruitini and fruit sorbet. Extra gum will add
strawberry banana, berry pearadise, island cooler and sweet watermelon. As well as being a major player in the chewing gum market
Wrigley is also the owners of Korkunov the Russian chocolate manufacturing firm. Glisten the candy and snack manufacturer in the United
Kingdom has announced they had a successful 2007 has the companies earnings took a jump much of what was attributed to the firms
acquisitions. The company acquired 50% of Skinny Candy as well as taking a stake in Dormen Foods and Big Thoughts two snack food
companies. The company increased operating profit 19%. The French supermarket chain Leclerc has announced they will be removing
certain candies from the checkout area and moving them to the confectionery aisle. The company has taken the step even though it will cut
into their profits in response to the government's looking for ways to cut the child obesity rate.
March 11, 2008 - Cadbury has announced a date for its planned demerger of its soft drink division from its confectionary arm. The date is
May 7th and the beverage arm will include Dr. Pepper and Snapple among other brands. Nestle has announced they will be opening a
facility for research into dark and premium chocolate. The company will be working with Pierre Marcolini among others and the facility is
named The Chocolate Centre of Excellence. If you haven't yet seen it this years clucking bunny from Cadbury/Hershey its a cute item. The
rabbit is soft, cute and makes an entertaining sound when squeezed. The rabbit comes with a Cadbury chocolate egg. We saw these for
sale at Walgreens for $6.99 yesterday and think they make a nice Easter basket stuffer.
Chocolat Moderne has created what looks like an the folks at Moderne and remind our readers that over the last few years Moderne has
turned out fine product the folks at Moderne and remind our readers that over the last few years Moderne has turned out fine product after
fine product.
after fine product.
March 6, 2008 - We received an email from Frederique of Trois Crepes Patisserie announcing this years Easter selection. They're
carrying praline Easter eggs that look great. They also have little sardine boxes with 12 chocolate fish. The fish are called Poisson d'Avril
and are for celebrating April 1st. In France kids on April 1st play jokes on grownups by putting paper fishes on their backs. The grownups
then go about their business unaware that they have a paper fish stuck to their back. Swiss news sources are reporting that Cadbury has
created a new European headquarters in Switzerland. The company has been reorganizing over the last year. They've demerged with their
beverage side and have moved much of their manufacturing to Eastern Europe. Cadbury is hoping by combining their operations they will
have a more International operation in place. The Spanish confectionary firm Natra saw an increase of 31% in sales in 2007 over 2006.
Much of the increase can be attributed to the firms acquisition of the Belgium based firm All Crump. They also acquired the Italian brand
Nutkao the second largest chocolate spread brand in Europe behind Ferraro's Nutella. The Finnish firm Cloetta Fazer Confectionery is
changing their packaging in response to criticism that their labeling's character Laku-Pekka is a caricature of a black person that
perpetuates a negative racial stereotype. Starting in April the new wrappers will make their appearance. They will use the previous
wrappers color scheme, black, white and red. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility an organization that represents 300
faith-based investors with over $100bn in invested capital has called upon companies in the food industry to not use genetically modified
(GM) sugar beet. The group has posed their objections on their website. The group fears that allowing GM sugar into the nation's food
chain would affect thousands of commercially available products. Many companies have already announced plans to keep GM products
out of their some of their products. Mc Donalds has announced they will not use GM potatoes and General Mills wont use GM wheat.
Opposition to GM products is much more developed in Europe than here in the States. John & Kiras has once again created a very nice
looking holiday item. These are 64% Valrhona chocolate eggs that come in a nice wooden box and sell for $36 a dozen. Cocoa prices
keep rising and The International Cocoa Organisation has announced that the daily price of cocoa increased 4.6% in January from
December. Hopefully this wont push chocolate prices up to much. Hershey has put up a site for Easter. The site has ideas for Easter
basket making, craft projects and recipes. Vosges Hot - Chocolat has added a new bunny this year to their lineup. Amalfi , White chocolate
bunny infused with lemon zest and pink peppercorn , will be joining Barcelona, Milk chocolate bunny with smoked almonds and grey sea
salt , Gianduja, Milk chocolate with almonds and hazelnut praline and Red Fire Bunny, Dark Chocolate with Mexican chillies and Ceylon
cinnamon.
March 3, 2008 - Sometimes you see corporate partnerships and you wonder why bother and sometimes you wonder what took so long.
The later sums up today's announcement that Starbucks and Hershey will be releasing a line of chocolates under the Starbucks name.
We had the opportunity to sample this line a few weeks back and we are very enthusiastic about the quality of what was offered. Wow the
pairing of Anthony Carroll, Starbucks Coffee Quality Expert, and Ann Brinkerhoff, The Hershey Company's Master Chocolatier, has led to a
dynamite selection of chocolate that can be enjoyed both with coffee or by itself. We are particularly partial to the Citron Dark Chocolate
Tasting Squares. They have a deep chocolate taste with a fragrant hint of citrus. The Chai Milk Chocolate Squares are also a first rate
product. They literally melt on the tongue with a subtle clean taste of Chai. The Chai Truffles are also first rate and if they are coming
packaged in bags of 10 for $5.00 this could be one of the truly great bargains in the business. We also enjoyed the Milk Chocolate covered
Coffee Beans and only wish they would also come in Dark Chocolate. Of the fourteen items that we sampled the only one that we found
wanting was the Dark Chocolate Vanilla Bean Truffles. We found them a little to sweet with an aftertaste that was a bit hard to shake. On an
editorial note it's great to see how Hershey has been able to incorporate the concept of artisan chocolate into their business plan without
compromising quality. We are the first to admit we were a trifle leery when Hershey acquired Joseph Schmidt, Dagoba and Scharffen
Berger. These were three companies that had their own unique visions and we had the natural fear that in a larger corporate culture they
would lose these identities. In our opinion Hershey has done a masterful job with all three companies and their partnership with Starbucks
shows they are flexible and capable of developing new concepts in chocolate and bringing them successfully to the marketplace. The
Starbucks line will be sold in grocery stores and other mass market retailers. The price points are great and we heartily recommend you
take the time to sample the line.
March 1, 2008 - Safeway and Wegmans will now be carrying Chuao Chocolatier's chocolate bars. Chuao product has turned up here in
New York City at the Food Emporium and Whole Foods. We have found there bars to be of excellent quality. Considering Chuao is a
relative newcomer to the field, they opened their doors in 2002, they have done a tremendous job of producing a quality line and getting it
out into the marketplace. The AC Nielsen Company has issued a report for the year 2006. They found while chocolate consumption
increased 3.9% that premium chocolate consumption increased 24%. We'll be interested to see if the market grew at a double digit rate in
2007 as it seems even with all of the good press that chocolate has gotten over the last few years these kind of growth rates are hard to
sustain. Good news for the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in the Orland Square Mall which is a suburb of Chicago. On February
21st two teen age bandits made off with the store's mascot a 30 pound stuffed bear by the name of Truffles. The story made the local news
at the time, see the store's surveillance camera footage of the heist, and caused quite a stir locally. Two teenage girls came into the store
and provided information which should lead to the recovery of the bear.
| March 2008 News |