We are secret chocolate agents with one simple mission:
To make chocolate bars and treats for everyone to enjoy!
Back in 2012 there was no soft-launch for us… We didn’t make bars in our kitchen for family and friends to roars of approval until we were persuaded to give up our day jobs and go full-time. There were no festivals asking customers to place their wrappers in ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ tubs to give us a push to take the plunge.
By 2011 we’d sold our businesses (food and flowers, since you ask), pooled our resources, had a baby and driven up to the Arctic Circle for inspiration.
Starting out, we knew three things:
1) Norway is a very, very long country
2) We wanted to make chocolate bars
3) We couldn’t get customers by saying ‘it will look at bit like this and taste a little bit like that. How much do you want?’
So we had no option: we had to find a factory, do it up, buy a few tons of chocolate, get the packaging… The list goes on and on… and get cracking. Put it this way: the first chocolate bar we produced was shockingly expensive.
What’s with the name? Can’t you even spell chocolate?
Spelling was never our strong point. After all, we had 1,000 catalogues printed that boldly boasted our Chocolate Gifts… only we’d missed the ‘f’ out. Damn.
Luckily, the confectionery buyer of a firm we were trying to impress spotted it straight away. Few!
‘Chocolata’ is, or rather was, a fictional Libyan radio agony aunt. Her jingle went: ‘Dear Chocolata, Chocolata. Dear Chocolata’ in a kind of funky, syncopated kind of way. But we remembered it as ‘Ooh! Chocolata, Chocolata…’. All starting to make sense now, isn’t it? Glad we’ve cleared that one up.
We’re not crazy. There’s no shame in being crazy.
Rocket launching our brand…
We had a product and the packaging – now we had to go out selling.
We sold our first bar on 30th November, 2012. We had taken all of our range of ten flavours in two sizes to our very first stockist, placed them lovingly on the shelves and loitered. Minutes later, a lady walked over to them, picked one up and placed it in her basket. Somehow, we managed to resist running over to hug her. Our bars had tempted one customer: that was enough for us. Our little packets with the bold Ooh! had proved they could do it for themselves. Our job was done. But, our job had only just begun!
Many years later we’re still doing the same thing but with a much wider range of products and a long and growing list of loyal stockists up and down the country. We relish each challenge and delight in each and every customer that chooses to buy our products as much as we did the first one. Ooh! Chocolata is an expression of delight: we want to delight you.
If you have something to tell us, please get in touch: we’re here ready to listen and want to hear what you think. That’s how we can grow and make more and more chocolate for everyone to enjoy!
On behalf of us all at Ooh… Thank you for coming to visit us and I hope you try and enjoy our chocolate.
Bye for now!
