Chocolate firm fattens up with city expansion

0 The Edinburgh chocolate maker was bought by former firefighter Calum Haggerty in 2013 An artisan chocolatier is set to quadruple the size of its manufacturing space after investing in machinery to help meet growing demand from overseas.

Coco Chocolatier is moving fromitsfactoryinsummerhall, Edinburgh, to a unit four times the size on the city’s West Telferton Industrial Estate.

A new chocolate producing machine will see the business increase capacity from some 10,000 bars a week to 50,000, while its packaging facility will wrap 140 bars a minute – previously the company wrapped 100 bars an hour with two staff.

Since being bought by former fireman Calum Haggerty in 2013, the firm’s stockists have leapt from ten to more than 200, with distributors in Sweden and Hungary and a sales agent in Germany coming on board last year.

The firm, which has worked with Business Gateway Edinburgh to protect its intellectual property, is in talks with potential stockists in Japan, China, Canada and the US.