Chch choc-maker goes green

An entrepreneurial Christchurch chocolate-maker is persuading Americans to pay for climate change by buying its bars.

Images of wind turbines and a huge "carbon" footprint cover the chocolate bar's boxes and the wrapper is sprinkled with tips on how to be more green like: "Let the sun shine in.

Opening curtains and blinds to capture the warmth of the sun saves on heating and your cat will love you for it!"

Bloomsberry and Company's chocolate-with-a-conscience is one of the latest gimmicks on show at a major confectioner's convention in Chicago, the AFP newsagency reports.

It began exporting wittily packaged chocolate bars to Australasia, North America and Europe, after being established in 2001 by graphic designer Giles Barker and his wife Vanessa Kettelwell, a trained cook.

The couple wanted to develop a niche graphics-focused product targeting the upper end of the market in developed consumer markets around the world.

Their combination of sophisticated humour and graphics was used to promote trendy, tongue-in-cheek chocolate bars to "foodies", particularly educated females 30-plus who are prepared to read the label to get the humour.

Their research showed women were far more likely than men to give gifts.

The firm launched its chocolate bars - with names like Bochox, Chocoscopes, Oral Pleasure and Emergency Chocolate - in New Zealand, and then started exporting into Australia and Singapore.

It chose the United States as its first major market outside of Australasia, and less than two years later was approached by big retail chain Whole Foods to develop "Climate Change Chocolate".

Marketed as the "first taste of a lower-carbon lifestyle", Bloomsberry donates US55c (NZ72.5c) from each bar to American carbon offset operator TerraPass to pay for 60kg of carbon offsets, which is the average American's daily carbon footprint.

"We've sold enough in the first quarter that it's comparable to taking 900 cars off the road for a year," said Kerry Laramie, vice president sales and marketing for Bloomsberry's US division.

"That's 4.21 million kilograms of carbon offsets."

The bars, which were launched in the United States in January and may eventually be sold overseas, come at an opportune time: about 36 percent of US shoppers said in a recent survey that they regularly buy "green" products, up from just 12 percent in 2006.

Candy and chocolate are largely recession-proof and sales have been climbing steadily for years, hitting $US29.1 billion last year in the United States alone.

"Candy and chocolate are small indulgences -- they're what people use to make themselves feel good, which is that wonderful little taste," said Susan Smith, senior vice president for public affairs, National Confectioner's Association.

"So even though people might not be buying a new house or a new car they're always going to be helping themselves feel a little bit better with a new candy or chocolate product."

Bloomsberry is targeting the middle to upper end of its markets and in the United States also sells other lines in small stores as well as large retail chains Barnes & Noble, Borders book shops, Macys, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom.

Ironically, it actually manufactures its chocolate in the United States, reducing costs and eliminating the challenge of shipping perishable goods.

Just-in-time manufacturing means that the bars are only packed up for distribution once an order has been received.

Bloomsberry has focused heavily on protecting its intellectual property: "IP protection is paramount," said Mr Barker.

"Registration of our trademarks and some of our designs began almost at inception in the key English language markets of New Zealand, Australia, United States and the UK."

"The business model we have developed for the United States means we have no real major plant and equipment requirements," said Mr Barker. It can enter a new market quickly and without drawing down a lot of capital, except for stock.

Bloomsberry is planning to replicate the key parts of the US business model in Germany - for which it has already prepared designs for this market - and then to roll out in Britain.

It is already selling small shipments to Harvey Nichols, and separately has also signed a distribution agreement with a Canadian partner.

It is using in-market designers particularly in non-English speaking countries like Germany and The Netherlands to ensure it gets the design and humour just right.

The company is also localising the chocolate taste for each market.

- NZPA