CHOCOLATE
WHAT TOP PLAYERS ARE SERVING
Do you employ brand ambassadors to promote your offerings?
We have brand ambassadors for each product line, whose mission is to transfer their chocolate knowhow and techniques to other craftsmen in order to support the development of new products, concepts, packaging, recipes and training workshops. Their responsibilities also include ensuring quality, creativity, knowledge of ingredients and process leadership. Chocolate technology, chocolate bonbons, entremets, desserts by the plate, sculptures and decorations are some examples of what they are able to perform.
What are the major challenges you are facing?
Challenges are what feed the business mind by pushing it to go beyond just achieving a certain target. The general challenge we constantly face is not only to maintain our leadership in the chocolate business, but to properly maintain the services we extend to our customers and partners, while constantly investing in research and development (R&D). EMF and Barry Callebaut tackle this challenge with constant investments in product developments through technical support, chocolate academies and training centers. This also allowed the creation of various specialty chocolates to meet the increasing demand for ‘healthier’ products, such as chocolates ‘with no-sugar-added’, ‘rich in anti-oxidant and good for blood vessels’, ‘lactose free’, ‘tooth friendly’ and others.
What are the current top trending themes in chocolate?
Consumers nowadays want unique, authentic flavors for a matchless experience. This is where, for instance, the concept of Callebaut and Cacao Barry’s ‘single origin chocolates’ comes into play, which is very much in vogue. These chocolates are prepared from cocoa mass with cocoa beans from a single geographical area, country or even plantation, while all traditional chocolates are blends. Additionally, chefs are leaning toward setting themselves apart through their products and personalized recipes by using unconventionally exotic and local flavors in their chocolates, such as passion fruit, raspberries, cream cheese, tiramisu, pepper, chili, karawiya, ousmalliya and others.
In terms of future diversification, what do your plans include?
Our tactic is to use the recession and political instability as a tool for expansion by being more active, creative, risk-takers and more aggressive than the competition. Considering the political instability in the majority of the 16 countries we operate in, the only way to survive and grow is through diversification by targeting different market segments and expanding our operations in the region.
What would you say are your key strengths and how are you playing to those?
When it comes to the Middle East, our philosophy is to invest in time, resources, manpower, international networking and knowledge of the market in order to skillfully supply and recommend the right product to the right customers. Innovation, specialized technical assistance, dedicated training, certified man-power and training centers are some of the many services available at our disposal. After all, success comes from education, dedication and delegation.
What is currently in season and what is in vogue?
Chocolate professionals are getting inspired by their trips to Asia. They try to include strong Asian flavors that are mostly sour, like Matcha green tea, Miso and Wasabi in their truffles and bonbons, using caramel to make everything go well together. Turmeric is taking over chocolate laboratories and kitchens. Given its beneficial properties, it is a favored spice among health-oriented brands. It pairs incredibly well with dark chocolate, sometimes giving it a yellow color, depending on the quantity used.
Although cardamom isn’t new to the chocolate scene, it’s popular in both dark and white chocolate applications. This herb has a very distinctive flavor that sharply divides consumers into lovers and haters. Figs are a sweet fruit that intuitively pairs well with chocolate and black figs seem to be the variety currently preferred by many chefs.
Do you employ brand ambassadors to promote your offerings?
Valrhona is a chocolate brand available for all chocolate lovers and gastronomy professionals. In order to imagine the best in the transmission of flavor and expertise, our four schools in Tain l'hermitage, Paris, Tokyo and New York are welcoming every year Écoles Valrhona over 15,000 professionals across the world. Our 30 pastry chefs are supporting our clients on a daily basis in our individual and group technical consultancy, as well as in our overarching approach that aims to constantly encourage professionals’ creativity. We are also honored to welcome exclusive guest chefs from all over the world to share their knowledge and bring their own personal techniques and unique twists to specific classes. L’école Valrhona helps our partners to develop their identity thanks to targeted classes that are adapted to all areas of expertise, including chocolate, pastry, baking, ice cream and plated desserts.
What are the major challenges you are facing?
We are now an international company, making it necessary for us to adapt to local specificities. Our launches need to take into account each culture and taste. We are going global, but need to act locally for our brand image and recognition. We are also facing some challenges in certain countries when it comes to product registration.
What are the current top trending themes in chocolate?
It is said that people in the Middle East like milk chocolate. According to our findings, that is not entirely true and tastes are primarily country centric. In the UAE, for example, our bestseller is a dark chocolate (Guanaja 70%, created in 1986). Local people travel a lot and they become increasingly educated in term of taste. They know what they are eating and have higher expectations, which is good for the industry, but challenging for the chefs.
To accommodate this broad range of tastes, Valrhona launched, in January, a new innovation, rather than a traditional line, called INSPIRATION, which is fruit based, allowing the chefs to think about pastry differently. In September, strawberry inspiration will follow, then passion fruit, all of which have been made to enhance the ways we can use fruit in chocolate, pastries and ice creams. The INSPIRATION range will give chefs the pure, natural flavor of fruits, combined with the unique texture of chocolate.
In terms of future diversification, what do your plans include?
Valrhona has a presence in more than 70 countries. At Valrhona, we are confident in our ability to face tomorrow’s challenges, which is why we are implementing a corporate social responsibility (CSR) plan called ‘Live Long’, aimed at building a sustainable business model, promoting gastronomy professions, halving our environmental impact by 2025 and working closer with the cocoaproducing communities.
What would you say are your key strengths?
Valrhona aims to improve the world of gastronomy. Our strengths are our capacity for innovation, which runs in parallel with our expertise throughout the whole cocoa value chain. We are planters, sourcers, producers and creators. Our sourcers travel the globe in search of the finest cocoa beans, which will allow us to make exceptional chocolate. We build long-term partnerships with farmers. In 2013, we cemented our commitment to a sustainable supply chain by rolling out our Buyer Code of Conduct and our Sustainable Purchasing Charter. We want to make the best chocolate in the best way possible.
What is currently in season and what is in vogue?
The chefs will soon start thinking about their creations for Christmas. In turn, we will present them with our new range of chocolate, as well as our decoration range. Chefs love to sign their creations, they also love to add an extra design that will make their creation unique. Valrhona Signature is a decoration offer, which allows them to customize their desserts.
Do you employ brand ambassadors to promote your offerings?
Bano, as a whole, is the brand ambassador of all its products. It plays diverse roles in marketing, sales, technical demonstration and customer service to deliver a seamless brand image.
What are the major challenges you are facing?
Without existing challenges to tackle, the market will remain stagnant. However, our major challenge has always been to compete through offering the highest quality products and the price range to match, because we believe that we deliver no less than excellence in all categories.
What are the current top trendingthemes in chocolate?
The chocolate industry is a diverse one based on the cocoa bean, so trends are introduced by chocolate lovers who indulge themselves in the different chocolate flavors that best suit their tastes. The real Belgian chocolate called Belcolade, which is the only chocolate still owned by the Belgians, continues to develop and produce exceptional chocolates, which excel and exceed expectations.
In Europe, the dominant trend that has been making the rounds for the past couple of years is the Belcolade ‘Origin’. It comes in dark, milk and white chocolate versions, each of which has a very distinct flavor based on the country it was originally sourced from. These include Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Venezuela and Congo. However, the Arab world has not yet reached that level of maturity, as our society tends to stick more to the classic selection of cocoa-based chocolates.
In our region, however, the trend in chocolate has become a representation of 'Chocolat au Patisserie', having the flavors that are known in pastry to be created as fillings for chocolate; flavors such as, brownies, crème brulee, salted butter caramel, baklava, speculoos, etc…
In terms of future diversification, what do your plans include?
The sky is the limit as creation and innovation never stop, nor does the learning process.
What would you say are your key strengths and how are you playing to those?
Bano’s role relies on the constant search for the best ingredients and equipment to elevate the local and regional markets. Our perseverance and confidence in this industry are key to our strength and success.
What is currently in season and what is in vogue?
In the food sector, there are always new and changing market trends which depend on the changing needs of the consumers. And what's in season is 'clean label' products with no artificial preservatives or colors or additives, giving customers high quality natural products. In chocolate, the 'real' chocolate including no preservatives or hydrogenated fats. Also, the malt chocolate, containing containing 'maltitol' replacing sugar. One of the major trends Bano has launched is the sourdough bread mixes and flavors, which produces signature breads and mouth-watering crusts that consumers love.
What are the major challenges you are facing and how are you going about overcoming these?
The challenges today come in many different waves. In the past, you could split the demand between clients who were cost conscious and clients who were quality conscious. In today’s environment, chefs are rightfully requesting the correct formula between a customized recipe which is of a high standard and a low price point. To achieve this, it’s no longer possible to purchase commodities from one source because everything, from weather conditions to the political environment, can affect supply and prices. The advantage of Benoit is that the same recipe is sourced from various reliable suppliers around the world to ensure we always achieve stability on both levels. The most important aspect of what Benoit offers is flexibility; the option to customize your chocolate recipe or fillings or cake decorations and in small quantities. This, we believe, is the way forward in today’s economy.
What are the current top trending themes in chocolate?
One of the key innovations we have recently launched is personalized chocolate decorations to be used on cakes and pralines. Through the technology we have implemented in one of our plants, we are able to offer clients a customized, engraved logo on chocolate in an efficient way that has never been done before. Since customization is what every business is looking for today, we believe this will be a big hit throughout the region. We have also developed and launched a new range of innovative chocolate fillings, such as ‘Riz b Haleeb’ and ‘Mistika’. These have been very well received in the market and the range is continuously evolving, even though it has an age-old sense of flavor and familiarity.
In terms of future diversification, what do your plans include?
The brand is already present through partners in the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait, Spain and Canada. However, our main growth strategy is based on regional expansion, which is why we are considering a presence in Middle Eastern countries offering interesting opportunities in the coming year.
What would you say are your key strengths?
The range and quality of our products are our strengths as a brand. When we look for a partner to distribute our products, we are offering them a diverse range, from chocolates and fillings all the way through to cake mixes and jams. Such diversity is instrumental when considering the possibilities for creation.
What is currently in season and what is in vogue?
The chocolate industry is constantly evolving and trying to pinpoint the next big thing is going to be is quite a tricky proposition, especially since there are many trends that appear out of nowhere and then fade away after being replaced by other trends. Speculoos and red-velvet are examples of such trends. I think it is important to stay tuned to the global market trends and be ready to act on these as quickly as possible.