Cocoa Wilds is a boutique, handcrafted chocolate business on Auckland's O’Connell St.
Cocoa Wilds is a boutique, handcrafted chocolate business on Auckland's O’Connell St.
Byron McLean, managing director and founder of Cocoa Wilds, talks to the Herald about his whirlwind journey to becoming a chocolatier and opening his own store after being made redundant from his corporate job in 2022.
What is Cocoa Wilds?
We’re a boutique, handcrafted chocolate business in O’Connell St, right in the heart of Auckland city. Our chocolates are inspired by European quality and we focus on making the most delicious chocolates possible. We focus on selling directly from our store, via our website as well as doing custom corporate orders.
We are dedicated to investing in premium ingredients, which means we use less or minimal sugar and preservatives than most chocolate you find in supermarkets. The result is exquisite-tasting chocolate which we are very proud of.
When you visit us you can watch our chocolates being made on-site. As well as handcrafted chocolates we do amazing real hot chocolates which are already a firm favourite with our customers.
I’ve always been interested in food and the experience and pleasure it can bring but never dreamt that one day I’d become a chocolatier - despite being a dedicated consumer over the years.
However, as fate would have it, I was made redundant from my corporate job in 2022 and it felt like a prime opportunity to start a new chapter.
We looked at various ideas, but kept coming back to chocolate because so many New Zealanders have never had the opportunity to try handcrafted chocolate. I travelled extensively to Europe and the US as part of my research. I think I sampled over 300 different types of chocolate from around the world to help decide the path we would take.
Byron McLean, managing director and founder of Cocoa Wilds.
What have been your biggest challenges?
The most important, as a new business, is unavoidably hard work and long hours. It’s taking me away from my young family which is hard, not just for me but also for my wife who has her own demanding career. It’s a juggle and of course you are always thinking about cash flow.
Early on, trying to get started and those first few months felt like a black comedy, despite feeling so considered to avoid waste or mistakes, the amount of poor luck and inconvenience that occurred. You can’t become a victim, you have to have contingencies and acknowledge what you could do better, but largely you have to laugh it off and persist, getting your attention back to what matters.
What are your biggest achievements?
Opening our doors. In the space of 10 months we went through four plans, created a brand from scratch, signed a lease, and learnt everything I could about the chocolate world. I read books, consulted with industry chefs, travelled to France and Italy to observe, learn and train. At the time it was such a whirlwind, I didn’t stop to draw breath but now I can look back at what a massive achievement it’s been to get to where we are today.
We’ve had international tourists come in and buy boxes to take home with them which is super validating.
What are your biggest challenges and opportunities going forward in 2024?
My biggest challenge is certainly financial stability and sustainability; chocolate commodities are up 40 per cent since January alone. I knew rises were inevitable due to climate impacts and growing global demand, but not like that, and when raw materials cost more, and relative revenue and converted currency is lower for a like-for-like sale compared to other markets.
There’s a tough question around how you make world-class chocolate sustainably from Aotearoa. Opportunities in 2024 mean continuing to develop our craft and capabilities, expanding our range and employing and growing our people to do enjoyable, rewarding work.
How has it been trading in the current economic climate?
It’s clearly tough out there; we maybe would do better in another time, but we’re okay so far. We’re in a growth stage and need to simply keep focused on moving up. We are always mindful and respectful of what is good value to different customers we want to reach, so we have a price point and product to meet all budgets. Chocolate is a highly sentimental and appreciated but relatively affordable gift or indulgence all things considered.
The Cocoa Wilds store front on O’Connell St, Auckland.
What do you hope to achieve through the business?
I’ve got lots of ideas, hopes and avenues in mind. Really, I just want people to open a box of our chocolates with others and be excited and delighted by what they experience, like what many of us would have in the ‘80s or ‘90s when someone got a rare, varied chocolate box at Christmas. That’s the feeling of a Cocoa Wilds chocolate box. A special moment, not a mass-produced thing grabbed in a rush or a mindless snack.
I also want to create a business that is lasting, positive and takes New Zealand ingredients and finished products beyond our shores.
How have global increases in chocolate and sugar affected your business and the wider industry in NZ?
We don’t have the scale and resources to leverage buying power, or high volume manufacturing efficiency at this stage obviously as a mitigation, so we have to wear it, which means less margin, less profits for reinvestment, slower growth and tougher price points for our customers if we choose to pass it on.
In the industry, bigger producers will favour lower cocoa percentages (i.e. milk chocolate over dark chocolate), will reduce bar sizes for the same price, or push more inclusion-filled bars (i.e. caramel centred) as cost and material substitutes.
A chocolate I sell for $3.50 can sell for NZ$5.80 in the US, but that’s not palatable for our customer, so moving forward we’ll have to be disciplined, innovative, resourceful, charge fairly and do so within the context of the customers’ alternatives if we want to compete. That’s what we’re here to do, so I’ll give it my best and we’ll see how it shakes out.
