Special chocolate features at events are proving increasingly popular in the Middle East, as the chocolate fountain at Fairmont Dubai's ATM 2009 party
An innovative chocolate concept catering for the growing market in speciality chocolate offerings at events has opened its first retail outlet in the UAE.
Located at Dubai’s Jumeirah Plaza Centre, the Choco Dou outlet offers an assortment of cocoa-related goodies including flavored coffees, hot chocolates, books about chocolate and chocolate fondue sets.
Established in Dubai in September 2008, the brand has been operating in Australia for more then eight years as part of Cedars International Group’s gourmet catering and events sector, according to Cedars Gourmet Catering and Choco Dou Trading managing director Wassim Yared.
The company had carefully assessed the UAE market’s potential before expanding into the region, said Yared.
“It’s a competitive market and a challenging one,” he admitted. “But we did a lot of studies before starting the new business and found there was a lot of potential for our concept.
“We are offering something a bit different,” he continued. “We are not a chocolatier; we import our chocolate from Lebanon and Belgium, using the finest quality Callebaut brand for all raw materials.
“Then we provide chocolate arrangements specifically designed and personalised for all occasions — and we have our designer working in house handling any request, from weddings to births to graduations to company events,” he explained.
Yared said the brand’s clientele was varied, but that there was a special focus on developing flavours to appeal to the local market.
| Advertisement |
“We do this by producing chocolate items featuring flavours like carrot, date, almond, rose water, curry juandava cream — and we even make chocolate suitable for diabetics,” he said.
“We also we do printing on chocolate for any design required, such as a logo or a picture, using the latest techniques for printing.”
According to Yared, the company’s services are increasingly in demand.
“We provide some services to hotels and restaurant, mainly for events when we are creating centre-pieces or providing a chocolate arrangement on special occasions,” he explained. “It’s proving very popular at events in this region.
”There is always demand for high-quality special elements or innovative ideas or displays to make an event that little bit more special."
Yared added that the brand was looking to "expand business already".
“Our next branch of Choco Dou will hopefully be operational by end of this year in Abu Dhabi, and we are also working on plans within other GCC countries including Qatar, Bahrain and Oman," he said.
For more information on Choco Cou, visit: www.chocodou.com
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
