The company hoping to keep chocolate manufacturing alive and well in Dunedin has found a site for its expansion.
Photo: 123RF
Last year the the Otago Chocolate Company (Ocho) raised $2 million through crowd funding so it could expand - and try to save jobs lost when the Cadbury factory closed.
General manager Liz Rowe said a new site for the craft chocolate maker had been found on the city's waterfront.
The first thing for the business to do would be do set up a commercial production space at the site, Ms Rowe said.
"The next phase will be to set up a tour operation, having people come through and do tours and chocolate tastings and find out much more about craft chocolate and how it's made.
"And the final phase will be to set up a cafe as well.
"So there'll be the three components, the cafe, the tours, and actual chocolate production which will make, we hope, a really good tourism venture for Dunedin as well as a production base."
It was too soon to say how many people the business will eventually employ, Ms Rowe said.
She believed there was a gap in the market for craft chocolate, and while Ocho might start making a milk chocolate, there was no plan to make anything other than a premium quality product.
