Mood Foods expands raw chocolate production as it targets 40% business growth

By Douglas Yu

- Last updated on GMT

Mood foods has generated £1.3m ($1.9m) worth of revenue in total from its Ombar brand alone this past year.
Mood foods has generated £1.3m ($1.9m) worth of revenue in total from its Ombar brand alone this past year.

Related tags Chocolate Sugar

UK business Mood Foods has invested £1m ($1.4m) in moving to a larger facility to increase production of its raw cacao Ombar Chocolate.

The Cambridge-based company produces all its chocolate in-house, with around 90% of its turnover generated by the Ombar brand and the remainder made up of bulk chocolate and online sales of other raw chocolate.

Its new production facility, which is located near Cambridge, will include a new molding line, refiners and packing machines. The company hopes to be fully relocated before chocolate season ramps up in late September.

Raw chocolate bar using unroasted cacao

Mood Foods produces its Ombar chocolate using unroasted cacao, unrefined coconut sugar and real fruit, founder Richard Turner told ConfectioneryNews. All the products are also certified organic by the Soil Association.

“We have developed a way of producing chocolate that preserves a great deal more of these natural beneficial compounds found in the raw bean,”​ Turner said. “This partly involves avoiding the roasting step and other stages that normally involve fairly high heat.”

Available in nine flavors - and recently expanded with bars featuring a truffle center - Ombar is sold at £1.99 ($2.88) for a 35-gram chocolate bar in UK retailers including online business Ocado. It is also available in 20 other countries, primarily in Europe.

Digital marketing activity

Recent growth in sales of Ombar has prompted the company to partner with digital marketing agency Vertical Leap, to further engage with consumers and develop new markets.

“We love being able to engage directly with the people eating the chocolate as sometimes we could feel out of touch when just sending out pallets to wholesalers,” ​Turner said.

The company has generated £1.3m ($1.9m) of revenue from Ombar in the past year, said Turner. After completing the factory move, the business expects to produce around 80 tons of chocolate in the next financial year and grow its overall business by 40%.

“We think Ombar is ideally positioned for the high-growth areas of artisan foods and healthier snacking and believe Ombar is the ideal offering for these market trends," ​added Turner.

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