Chocolate house finds home in Delta

By Tom Zillich

The chocolate company known for its hedgehogs has set up shop on Annacis Island.

House of Brussels' move from Vancouver to a much larger plant in Delta involves a goal of being among the most quality-conscious chocolate factories in North America.

That means the installation of technology such as security cameras bolted on several walls of the factory, so the chocolate-making can be viewed via an Internet portal.

"We're a public company, so shareholders won't want to see something like chocolate shavings on the floor," said Timothy Donovan, the company's director of marketing.

Headquartered in Texas, House of Brussels has factories in Fresno, Calif. and now on Fosters Way, northwest of the Alex Fraser Bridge. Its popular hedgehog chocolates are based on the traditional Belgian symbol of good luck.

Donovan says the company's new focus is private-label work for American clients.

"We're growing fast and needed more space," he said. "As a company, we're moving away from the retail market to concentrate on niche products," such as low-carb and supplement-fortified chocolates.

For example, House of Brussels makes a line of sugar-free chocolates marketed by Suzanne Somers. The product is made with an artificial sweetener called maltitol, which is a laxative for some people.

Some areas of the factory are kept top-secret.

"One client, which I won't name, requires that we keep $1 million of their product stored here in the factory, at any one time," said Donovan.

"We're taking a lot of contacts from other companies right now because clients are coming here and seeing how well laid out we are."

More than 200 clients, vendors and investors toured the factory at an April open house. The Now was also invited for a closer look at the plant, which began production last January.

All visitors who walk the factory floor must wear white lab coats, head covers and protective booties, and are led through a dust-removal chamber that blasts air for 20 seconds at a time.

Surprisingly, the raw chocolate isn't actually made at the plant; it's shipped from Europe and then melted in huge vats before being given shape with the help of employees and some high-tech machines.

On one assembly line, a metal detector is used to virtually guarantee purity of the final product.

"It's so sensitive, says chocolatier and production manager Iby Boran. "We've had it go off and then we melt down the product to see what's wrong in there, and it's always nothing - no trace of anything, besides chocolate."

On tour day, workers were packing some peanut brittle for on-site sampling at local Costco outlets, a new venture for the company.

"It's fast work, like that famous episode of the Lucy show," says Boran, "but we don't eat the chocolate here."

House of Brussels is looking to capitalize on the latest industry trend - drinking chocolate - through a partnership with German firm Schokinag.

"It's going to be big, a huge trend in chocolate," said Donovan, noting the recent launch of Starbucks' Chantico drinking chocolate.

The creation of such products makes the factory smell a little like heaven.

"Everybody says it smells so good in here," says Boran, a 13-year employee, "but if you work here for a long time, you don't smell it anymore."

In a global sense, chocolate makers are breathing easier with news April 6 that civil-war foes in Ivory Coast have agreed to sign a peace accord. The conflict caused cocoa prices to soar in the country, which grows 40 per cent of the world's cocoa beans. Upon news of the truce, cocoa prices fell.

posted on 04/21/2005