Grainne Mullins 0:00
If this was something unique to the entire market, people actually wanted these, they'd never seen chocolates like this. And they wanted to have a treat because of all the attention to detail that we have inside every single box of chocolate. We have built this incredible community of people. But we also have built this incredible product that people really want to keep coming back for. That's
Finola Howard 0:18
Grainne Mullins founder and CEO of grow chocolates, Forbes 30, under 30 and disrupter of the chocolate industry. Rarely do we get to go on a journey with an entrepreneur when they are smack bang in the middle of a challenge that actually threatens their vision of the future. And yet, that's when successful entrepreneurs become their most creative, faced with an increase in ingredient prices of up to 69%, and a doubling of their annual rent. That's what Grainne had to do, and is doing Lean In as we learn more about her plan to overcome these obstacles. I'm Finola Howard, intuitive marketer, your host and founder of how great marketing works, I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or not. And your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve. And this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you. Because great marketing is your truth share. I want to reflect today on this idea of one of the measures of success for an entrepreneur, one of the things that entrepreneurs are really known for when they're successful, is their ability to cope with adversity, to look at the obstacles and find a way around them. And today, I want to work in you to somebody who is in the middle of that process. And it's really going very well. But it's in the thick of this process. And we don't often have this opportunity to speak to someone when they're trying to figure out a way through the problem. So today, I'd love to introduce you to the wonderful Grainne Mullins from Gra chocolates. Welcome, Grainne.
Grainne Mullins 2:06
Thank you so much for having me on.
Finola Howard 2:09
Oh, I'm delighted to have you. So I wanted to invite you on because, as I said, you're in the thick of this process, you shared a post on LinkedIn very, very recently, talking about an issue that a lot of entrepreneurs are facing at the moment. And I'd love your thoughts on this at the moment. And you expressed this, what you were experiencing that you just got an email that said 24 of your ingredients for your amazing chocolates, were actually increasing in price by up to 69%. And the unit that you've been renting for the last two years had gone up had doubled by like 70k for the year. Yes,
Grainne Mullins 2:45
that's all true. It was quite a shock to get that as you can imagine. And it's nothing new, I suppose in business costs are always changing, usually going up very rarely going down. And you just have to learn to kind of get around that, although when it's in such magnitude of 69%, and rent, almost doubling, it's quite a shock to the system. And you're you're trying to find a solution, but you don't know straightaway, where solution can come from.
Finola Howard 3:10
And so you went to social, it's kind of interesting, you know, you went to short social, you were vulnerable enough to share that this is the situation like previous generations or other people that might have taken the view that they would hide that go to their bank, try and find conventional means of overcoming this challenge that you're facing. And you are in business since 2020. With a great, we talked about that in a second. But you went to social and kind of left it out there. I'm not sure. Did you overtly ask for help you put it out as a brainstorming post. And you got loads of ideas back?
Grainne Mullins 3:46
I did. I couldn't believe the reaction I got back that evening. I did it. I suppose in a sense of desperation. I don't usually share any negativity or challenges we have in the business. Usually I'm quite positive about everything we do. But in this moment, I knew that I needed my community support, I needed their advice. And LinkedIn is incredible as well that you can just post up a very vulnerable post or a very business focused post and you can get loads of advice. And that's exactly what happened. It pretty much went viral. So many people came on to view the post. My LinkedIn went incredibly busy, and I got so many direct messages, comments, advice, reach out phone calls, everything you can imagine I received all that within the next 24 hours.
Finola Howard 4:29
And your brain did your brain just explode and or did you just go, Okay, I'm gonna process all of this. Were you expecting to actually have to sift through all of these ideas?
Grainne Mullins 4:39
I didn't expect any of this reaction. So I My first reaction was actually to feel like I have a sense of support and a community around me. So I felt very relieved in many ways. I went wow, that's a big I can take a big deep breath and I don't feel like I'm choking anymore. And it put my mind spinning in a different way. It's only looking at altered understand how we can turn this into a positive. What else could we do? How could we get jump on the support? How can we get people involved because because we're direct to consumer products, we do have a great relationship with our customers. And that's really important to retain. But also, I have to make sure that we use those when we need to, because we're always there for them when they need us. So it's right to be try to do it as a full on relationship where you can use each other when you need to. So yeah, just tapped into our community we thought it was somebody gave us the idea for a Kickstarter. And we started researching planning. And within 24 hours, we decided we were going to take a stab at doing our Kickstarter. And I
Finola Howard 5:35
love this idea, right? So you, yeah, in 24 hours, launched the Kickstarter campaign, because your solution to your problem is to build your own chocolate factory. Exactly, exactly.
Grainne Mullins 5:46
Because that way we can control our own rents, we can have a bit more feasibility on it. And I think it will mean a lot more to us in the long run.
Finola Howard 5:55
Tell us share with everybody, what's the vision of what you want out of this Kickstarter. And why? Because it's bigger than the predictable. So
Grainne Mullins 6:04
why I suppose it's just have a unit, pretty much the same size, what we have now, but potential for growth, the the one we have at the moment is great, we do run out of space in it. But I also don't think it's optimized to its best ability, I think if we were to have a blank unit, we would do a lot more with it. Also the rent costs, if we can control those to make sure the rents aren't going up every single year, it leaves a whole lot more control for us. And then we'll be a place that we can call home. And we wouldn't have to be fearful of our landlord just trying to increase their price, it brings back control. But it also means we can study the price of our chocolates. And we don't have to worry about that so much. You
Finola Howard 6:39
were very concerned about increasing prices for chocolates, are you concerned about increasing prices for chocolates because of the state of the market at the moment, what's on your mind with that, I
Grainne Mullins 6:48
suppose my my, my idea on that is that I don't want we have an amazing customer group. They have been beside us every single step of the way. We keep going because of our customers that keep coming back to us. And the ones that keep sharing the word and I want to be just as loyal to them as they have been to us saying that prices do increase for us across the board. And if we're getting increasing prices, sometimes you have no choice but to increase. But I didn't want to have to do it in the sense of if I was doing after double my rent costs and break that down for every single chocolate we make. It's it's a big increase. So it's trying to be feasible as a business while also being and showing loyalty to your customers.
Finola Howard 7:26
And also you don't want a price increase that a desperate move, because that again means that well if something else shifts again, do you have to do this desperate move again? It is it is about putting that control back in your hands. It's much more strategic. Yeah. Bravo. Can you share with people just people who don't know about Crowe chocolates who are based in and grow meaning love, which is wonderful, and your background as a pastry chef, you speak on your website be about wanting to disrupt the chocolate industry? Do you want to give people a little intro into gras chocolate so we can get context for the kickstart? Absolutely.
Grainne Mullins 8:02
So I as I said, as you said, I worked as a pastry chef for over 10 years and financing a Michelin star restaurants locked down hit and my world was turned upside down because I couldn't work. So I started making handpainted easter eggs for all my friends and family. So these are beautiful little works of art. But that also tastes absolutely incredible. So I wanted to create these treats just as a gift. But when I started sharing them on social media, I started to realize that this was something unique to the entire market, people actually wanted these they'd never seen chocolates like this and they wanted to have a treat. Everyone loves chocolate. Everyone really loves chocolate. But sometimes the the standard box of chocolate may not be appreciated as a gift because they can be bought anywhere. And they may not be seen as a luxury product. But I was able to flip that and turn chocolates into this absolutely delicious experience. indulgence treat gift and make it super special. And because of all the attention to detail that we have inside every single box of chocolates, we have built this incredible community of people but we also have built this incredible product that people really want to keep coming back for
Finola Howard 9:06
paint us a picture of the product because if someone hasn't been to your website, it's is an A confess that I haven't bought your chakras yet, but I will I will I promise when we come up with this, but visually they're feast. They're like jewels like where did this come from?
Grainne Mullins 9:24
Well, the handpainted designs I had done it for years in the fine dining restaurants. And I actually didn't realize how unique it was because I was so used to doing it. And it was only when I started making them and putting them on Instagram that people realized how beautiful they were and how different they were and people really wanted to get their hands on them. So that's what made me realize that there is a place in the market for a chocolate that looks beautiful and tastes beautiful. Then on ingredients wise because I worked as a chef for so many years and because I love ingredients I love food. I actually spent a lot of work on building a range of chocolates that was made us Seeing the finest quality ingredients Irish wherever possible, and they taste phenomenal. So your usual chocolate may be a year long, maybe have a year shelf life or two years, our chocolates have three months. And the reason for this is because we're using really fresh ingredients, we're using fresh Irish cream, we're using fresh Irish butter, we're using our beautiful fillings I can Island sea salt, and because they're all fresh, natural ingredients made by us, then they taste so much better than any other chocolate you could ever have. That's Wow,
Finola Howard 10:31
okay, I'm going there. So you also invested in the packaging. So because one of the things that you said you talk about edible pieces of art, it's very clear on your website that you speak about edible pieces of art, but you're also speak about it from creating moments of experience. How do you bring that beyond the chocolate.
Grainne Mullins 10:55
So beyond the chocolate, I suppose when people have it in front of themselves anyway, they're going to experience it, they're going to open the beautiful box, the texture of the box, the packaging, it makes it feel like a true gift for oneself or to give to somebody else, then everything about the way we lay the chocolate and the size of them. The way you can have two full bites out of them, the way we describe our chocolates, the whole way down to our communication with customers the entire way through the process. We keep them updated. We keep them communicated. And we ask them their opinions, we ask them can they give us feedback, because we want to always improve and build on what we're currently doing. So every part of it, including our marketing, including the business as a whole, including the way we make our chocolates, pack, our chocolates, ship them out to you everything is done. With love care attention, we put so much work into making sure that everyone has a fantastic experience with us. And that won't always happen, you will have something that goes wrong. Maybe it was out of your control. Maybe it was a mistake that we made internally. But a began about showing people how much we appreciate them and apologizing and making a quick response will mean you can make an maybe an unhappy customer, the happiest customer.
Finola Howard 12:00
Do you think that your your background in the service industry is what has taught you about his level of customer service?
Grainne Mullins 12:08
Absolutely. So for many years working in fine dining restaurants, you have to think about every single part of the experience I myself love eating and these would be my favorite hobby really would to eat in fine dining restaurants. And I love everything from the moment the door is opened for you the way they take your coat the way you're greeted the way, you're everything about the table setting, the tablecloth, the chair, there's so much attention to detail in every single part of that fine dining experience. And I wanted to be able to still have that creative control and that experience, but within a box of chocolates. And that was a challenge at the very beginning. But it also led to being our strengths as well, because we thought outside the box in order to be able to provide these lovely experiences for our customers. And
Finola Howard 12:53
is it is this the thing that what is the thing that when you say I want to disrupt the chocolate industry, what's the thing that's disruptive,
Grainne Mullins 13:01
I suppose it's showing people that they can have a luxury experience there. It doesn't have to be a box of chocolates as a snack, it doesn't have to be a cheap box of chocolates that nobody would appreciate the gift, you can give a luxurious box of chocolates and really, really show people that that's a really, truly special gift. And that's I suppose what we're trying to do, we're trying to shake up that industry from its old classical style and having the same industry leaders that are tired for nearly 100 years that we try to change that into we're trying to break into be our own industry leader, but show that we're not necessarily competing with the other chocolate brands, in many ways we're actually competing in the gifting market. So potentially with a bouquet of flowers, or potentially with a candle. So you're looking at the market a little bit differently than you standardly would. You're not just looking at every chocolate brand in the market. One
Finola Howard 13:50
other question for you. So you've you found a product or you've developed a product in, in, in the context of your current adversity is around increasing prices. We're living in a world where cost of living is really high. And yet you have a luxury product. How how's it going? Like what's happening? Like, are you experiencing any changes in the market because of that, apart from the pricing thing? Yeah.
Grainne Mullins 14:17
So I suppose the markets are challenged, markets always going to change and move and adapt like we launched in lockdown. So all I ever knew was on the online world. So for us to come out of lockdown was actually a massive challenge and try to discover where our customer lives now because they've not leaving so much on their phone. And so I suppose we've seen a lot changing in just four years, which has been incredibly exciting, while also super challenging, but it shows so much resilience as well. And the way I like to look at kind of problems and market changes all the time is that nobody is ever going to be the same as a business owner you are and you have to be a problem solver. You have to think outside the box and you have to be able to solve problems all the time. So for me one of My biggest Reliance's is that I make sure that I have enough going on, I have enough happening. And I can think outside the box and react to things as they happen, we have to make sure we're staying on top of trends, while not always trying to be super trendy, but also trying to be a classical product that stays strong, but that we're looking at growing, looking outside the box and just continuing on how strong we can be.
Finola Howard 15:25
The loyalty that you have from your customers is that a new phenomenon as well in comparison to your previous life. Like was there always that degree of loyalty in the restaurant industry in your win, in your experience of the restaurant industry is this loyalty piece a completely new experience, I
Grainne Mullins 15:43
wouldn't say it's new, I think if you can give the correct experience, you should be able to have people coming back for more or at least wanting to come back for more, sometimes maybe a fine dining restaurant, it's not something that you can go back to every single week or every single month, but you might have customers that might come every quarter. And because you show them such a good experience, they want to come back or they might envy to go back, they might be like I can't wait to save up until I can go back to that restaurant. And that's the kind of experience we wanted to give as well. Ours isn't such a high price point. It's you can have a buck or chocolate for just 350. And it goes up the hallway. And there's much higher price points than that as well. But we can offer a piece of luxury at an accessible price point,
Finola Howard 16:22
Louis. Okay, let's talk about the Kickstarter. So you are talking about you're addressing your problem by what you're not only wanting to build your own chocolate factory, you're doing more than that. What are the other things that share with people.
Grainne Mullins 16:39
So one thing with being a main the online business, I very often don't get to connect with my incredible customers. We do online, we tried to communicate with them with email, sometimes over the phone, but very, very rarely do I get to meet them. So for me, it's super, super important that I can finally get a chance to bring them in and show them the world of growth chocolates, how we make our chocolates, what we do. Behind the scenes, I want to teach them about chocolate, teach them how to make chocolates, if they want to as well. So really, I want to have like a destination place I'd love to have a visitor shop or as well as the visitor centers, people could come experience growth Auckland and buy the freshest chocolates that were literally made that day, enjoy them, take them home, share them with friends and family and come and really experience what garage offers is all about.
Finola Howard 17:25
And you're also adding a community element like a startup policy. That's what
Grainne Mullins 17:30
I would love to include, I would really love to have a place where startups could get that first leg and they can continue to grow from there. I myself, it was a challenge when I first launched raw chocolates. And I didn't really know what, how to start where to start from. And there was certainly no unit for me to be able to rent and grow from. However, I learned all of that. But I think if I could give that one leg up to any other startup businesses, even if it was for their first year to help them, give them a leg up. And to be able to get moving on the ladder, I think it would be an incredible place to be able to do that.
Finola Howard 18:06
Fantastic. So if you go to and I put the link in the show notes, if you go to the show notes here, you'll see a link to grow chocolates Kickstarter campaign to build their own chocolate factory. And what their their first goal is to hit 50,000, which is the first step or the first milestone on their journey. And the first milestone is to buy the land to actually get to buy the land so they can build the Chocolate Factory. Now at this point, we are very close to the end of the Kickstarter, we've just a few days left or a couple of weeks left. But you're already at do you want to share the good news you're already at, at the time of this recording
Grainne Mullins 18:46
sensor at 95%, which is absolutely incredible. So we feel like we may hit on 2% today, which is exciting. It's absolutely incredible to see the support that we've had since day one. And it's it's blows me away to think that how many people want to support us. The one thing about Kickstarter though, is you are giving back to people and you're giving them something new and exclusive that they haven't had before. So we have lots of incredible packages from 25 euro to eight and a half 1000 euro, but there's one there for everyone from everything from having your name on a chocolate fountain, to me cooking your dinner to being able to create your very own chocolate. So there's lots and lots of special moments throughout the
Finola Howard 19:23
year supply of chocolate is also like there's really good stuff in their lives really
Grainne Mullins 19:28
good stuff.
Finola Howard 19:29
Yeah, it is absolutely in exchange. And I think that's why you're also getting so much support you really picked. So it's it is also evidence of how to do a Kickstarter properly, you're at 95% because you really thought about what would be something valuable that people would like to not only back us at this big leap that we're going to take in the growth of the business, but it's also about what you're giving back to them. My wish for you is that you blow this out of the water and you hit your second or your third milestone. So why don't you share the milestones For the whole project timeline, as you see it at this point, it's early days, I know, you're kind of probably trying to, you know, get a really good outline of how much this will take overall. But why not share it here? Absolutely.
Grainne Mullins 20:11
So we think the project overall, according to Quantity Surveyors, and what kind of figures we've worked out so far is going to cost us about a million. So that is a big target. The one thing about Kickstarter here, if you don't reach your target, you do not get any sense. So hence why we put a 50,000 Euro target on there. So now that we've reached our 50,000, it's only really the start of the journey. And we still have so much work to do in order to reach our 1 million. I'm saying that our first step is going to be initial planning stages, it's going to be talking to you and my county counselor to see where they think will be most suitable, I have a few options of locations. I haven't purchased anything yet. But once we know exactly where the council is happy for us to be, then we'll start to working work, start working on the rest of it. Ideally, we'd love something that is easily accessible for our customers to get to us and a true experience. The next then will be the drawing planning stage. And then we're moving on to constructing constructing it and actually laying foundation. So this is going to be an expensive project, there's no doubt about that. We also need to build the shell of the factory and then finally fit it out and launch it. So yeah, we it's very, very exciting. It's also quite daunting. But it's incredible to think that I'm one step closer, even just today. So
Finola Howard 21:28
just to share 50,000 to buy the land, which is Step Milestone One, Milestone Two, you're thinking construction drawings and planning, you need 100k, let's push for 100k. And then we've got stage three 250k, to get construction and lay foundation stage for 500,000 to build the shell of the factory. And stage five is 1 million purchase of machinery and completion of the amazing chocolate factory. So this is the call out to everybody listening to see, to click on that Kickstarter link and actually help draw chocolates, build their own chocolate factory and create wonderful experiences for everyone. Thank you so much for joining. How would you like to leave people with today? What would you like people to leave?
Grainne Mullins 22:12
I would love to, for them to remember that as a small business, the only way you can grow is by the support of the incredible community. And our community has been incredible. And hopefully today, a few of them them are listening to us or else we're converting a few more to want to try out the chocolates or help support and visit our chocolate factory once it launches. And if each and every one of us goes that a little bit further with buying something Irish, supporting an Irish business promoting an Irish business, we can do so much on this incredible Island. And we can help small businesses to grow into bigger businesses that will help to create employment that will help to just help and grow our economy the way it is. So yeah, it's very exciting. But I hope loads of you can hop on, check out our Kickstarter and start telling loads your friends and family all about it. Fantastic.
Finola Howard 23:00
Thank you so much, Grainne.
Grainne Mullins 23:02
Thank you.
Finola Howard 23:07
I hope you enjoyed that episode. And if you'd like to find out more about growth chocolates, then check out www dot Grachocolates.com That's gra chocolates.com And do support their Kickstarter campaign, the link for which is in the show notes. Let's see if we can help Grainne build her Chocolate Factory. And if you'd like to support the show, please follow or subscribe on your chosen platform. It makes all the difference to the impact that I'd love this podcast to have on the world. deeper conversations that allow us to grow to celebrate each other's truths and to know that there are many who are working with a greater purpose in the world.
