The core of chocolate business: how to really make money on chocolate

Chocolate

For many of us it’s something sweet we buy at a grocery store or a pastry shop. Few connoisseurs see a beautiful delight culture in it. For chocolatiers it’s a full-fledged job, and for many of them it’s a business. We know firsthand that making money, doing something you’re passionate about it’s one of the best things in the world. So in this article we’ll talk about how to make your chocolate making hobby into a profitable business. With examples and numbers, of course.

Jump to numbers

So you sit down and do the math. First thing you need to understand is how much this project implementation and execution will cost you, and whether it will be profitable or not.

You’re probably used to working with pre-made chocolate (belgium, perhaps), which is packed in convenient packages, because it’s rather tasty and it enables you to make bars of a consistent quality time and time again. 4 000 bars a month is 400 kilograms of chocolate. Seeing as the price of pre-made chocolate averages at about 9,45 euros at the time of publication of this article (August 2024), it will cost you about 3780 euros or more.

Make chocolate yourself

For that we’ll need specialized equipment. A melangeur in particular.

The family of professional KADZAMA Melangeurs

To make chocolate it takes from 12 to 48 hours (of continuous process)

It’s a compact grinder with granite millstones, loading capacity of 2 to 100 kg for making chocolate and spreads, including sugarless 100% spread. Melangeur made chocolate that’s made from cocoa nibs or cocoa liquor can be identical in terms of taste to the pre-made chocolate, but it will cost a lot less: starting at just above 2 euros per kilogram against almost 10 euros for pre-made chocolate if ingredients are bought in a small wholesale. All of the ingredients included in chocolate (cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, milk powder, flavoring agents, sugar, lecithin and other) can be bought from trade platforms, such as Alibaba or Europages, or from industry suppliers like Cargill or Olam.

A professional melangeur is designed to operate 24/7. On average, it takes three days (72 hours) to prepare perfectly silky chocolate, but this time can be reduced to two days. This means that during a work week (Monday to Friday), you can make two batches in the melangeur, which totals eight batches per month. Since you need to produce 400 kg, divide this volume by 8 to get 50. Therefore, a 65 kg melangeur is perfect for you, leaving extra chocolate for other needs.

Now you know how to produce the chocolate you and your customers are accustomed to at a third of the price.

Manufacturing automation with a help of an automatic tempering machine

Watch

Kadzama automatic tempering machine demonstration.

The optimal choice for fulfilling our order is to purchase a 30 kg automatic tempering machine.

Next, the molds. For comfortable and efficient work, ideally, you need 100 molds. Each polycarbonate mold costs about 25 euros, so you will need a total of 2 500 euros for all the molds. The workflow is such: in 20 minutes, you cast the first 50 bars — this quantity is optimal for a standard cooler: 10 bars per tray multiplied by 5 trays. While the cooler is getting fully loaded, the temperature inside rises (while you are loading the bars, the cooler remains open), and the circulation of cold air worsens, so it takes about 15-20 minutes for the bars to set. During this time, you pour the second batch of 50 bars and place them into the cooler, replacing the already set first batch. The molds need to be cleaned and organized immediately. You can simply wipe them down, without washing. It will take about 20 minutes to handle 50 molds. Thus, your productivity will be 100 bars per hour. Making 650 bars in a day is quite feasible — this is about 6.5 hours of work. So, you won’t have to strain too much or leave some bars for the next day. Feel free to rest and do other things, as today and tomorrow the melangeur will be grinding a new batch of chocolate, which you will only work on by Friday. By the way, nothing stops you from leaving the melangeur running over the weekend to start the new week with casting the chocolate into the molds right away.

This approach to fulfilling the contract will allow you to complete all 4 000 bars in 2.5 weeks under a normal work schedule without rushing. You will be able to rest on weekends and still have a full one to two weeks each month (including mid-week breaks) to search for other contracts, develop new products, or handle other business processes.

For better clarity, we have prepared detailed calculations with all costs and the time required to recoup the investments.

• Avoid dependency on the prices of finished chocolate, which are directly affected by complex logistics;
• Significantly save on primary products without compromising quality when producing large volumes of products monthly;
• Gain control over your chocolate recipes (primary product), become more flexible in terms of the composition of your products, and stop relying solely on finished chocolate;

• Expand your product line by adding items such as nut spreads, 100% sugarless spreads, plant-based pates, plant-based milk, hummus, fillings for candies and bars, sauces, dessert and sandwich spreads or healthy lifestyle desserts.

  Learn more about melangeurs >

• Automate complex processes in chocolate bar and candy production, reducing them to simple button presses. The automatic tempering machine (ATM) can operate as a standalone unit or in conjunction with additional attachments, such as a chocolate enrobing machine or a dispensing plate to speed up the production of candy shells;
• Eliminate expensive manual labor in production, as the staff operating it do not need to be chocolate experts, tempering specialists, or skilled in other complex chocolatier techniques;
• Avoid production stoppages due to employee turnover, as replacements for staff are easy to find;

• Easily produce large volumes of chocolate.

  Learn more about possibilities of ATM >

  Checklist for choosing an automatic chocolate tempering machine >

Thus, the melangeur and ATM allow you to think and act in terms of business, serving as the core of a scalable chocolate production system. They enable you to build your operation step by step without significant economic risks. This means you no longer need to purchase all the equipment at once; you can start with the essentials and acquire additional pieces as needed. Previously, you used tasty but expensive pre-made chocolate for your bars and candies. With increasing volumes, you realized that continuing in the same way was not cost-effective. With the melangeur, you began producing your own chocolate in the quantities you need and at the cost you require. The ATM allows you to completely forget about the routine of classic tempering and chocolate waste. Whereas you once manually coated candies in chocolate due to small volumes, which was time-consuming and expensive, you can now buy a chocolate enrobing machine that connects to the tempering machine, eliminating manual enrobing, increasing speed, and improving quality. If volumes continue to grow, you may find that your current cooler capacity is insufficient, prompting you to purchase a cooling tunnel that becomes an extension of the chocolate enrobing machine. You can then hire a packer to work at the end of the cooling tunnel, responsible for packaging the final product at the end of the line.

We understand that there are always risks in business. However, it’s reassuring when some of the risks affecting the system can be minimized or almost eliminated. The key is to have a stable core.