SA's De Villiers Chocolate secures shelf space abroad

It's one of the few African chocolate brands to be stocked by multinational, UK-based retailer Marks & Spencer, following a rigorous regional selection process by the group’s buyers to determine the best products to include from the continent.

De Villiers Chocolate is also listed in Cost Plus World Market’s catalogue, a fine food retailer in the US, with close to 300 markets across North America. Australians have also been introduced to the brand, with De Villiers Chocolate stocked by the country’s gourmet food retailer, David Jones – an affiliate company of Woolworths Holdings, the exclusive national retailer of De Villiers Chocolate.

From Hermanus to the world

The news marks the chocolate company's first venture into international markets, and "a definite highlight for the brand", says owner and chocolate maker Pieter de Villiers. “To be granted space in fine food retailers across the globe is an achievement which we, in our humble beginnings, could never imagine.”

The brand was conceptualised by De Villiers when he was still working as an engineer, and the first batches of chocolates were made in his garage in Hermanus – a small seaside town outside Cape Town – and sold at farmer’s markets. As popularity grew, De Villiers turned his chocolate-making hobby into a full-scale operation, becoming one of the first chocolate makers in Africa to trade commercially.

De Villiers Chocolate’s global expansion is complemented with an increased national footprint in South Africa too. The brand's products are sold under its own-label in Woolworths stores nationally, and it also plans to roll out 12 interactive in-store ‘chocolate pods’ or standalone booths in a number of Woolworths stores countrywide, following a successful launch in one of the retailer’s flagship stores last year. This is in addition to De Villiers Chocolate’s standalone stores in the Cape Winelands at Spice Route in Paarl and Franschhoek.

De Villiers says he hopes this expansion into international markets bodes well for recognition, and desirability, of chocolate made in Africa. This continent produces 70% of the global cocoa bean crops but produces less than 3% of the world’s chocolate – largely due to artisanal chocolate makers being unable to compete with mass producers who export the continent’s beans in bulk.

“I think this is an important step in showing consumers in other countries that there is more to the world’s chocolate than Belgian or Swiss chocolate. As a proud African, I am very happy to offer a taste of Africa to the world,” said De Villiers.