With the Chief Operating Officer, Vibhu Mahajan, Peaklife explores more about Choko La.
Choko la is the pioneer in introducing pure couverture chocolates to India. And now it is expanding its wings in the heart of New Delhi with the launch of an all new store. Located in GK-II in New Delhi, it is every chocolate lover’s heaven and promises a medley of delights to satiate your sweet tooth. With a vision to offer beautifully handcrafted and delicious premium chocolates in India, Choko la infuses top-notch ingredients from across the globe in all its delicacies. On this occasion, Peaklife explores more with Vibhu Mahajan, COO, about Choko la and its new store.
1- How and when did Choko la started?
The brand Choko La started in 2005. It’s been 14 years for us as a brand which has been trying to inculcate and create more chocolate awareness in the city. The word Choko La is a Mayan word which means to drink chocolate together. So, it’s about drinking, it’s about togetherness, it’s about enjoying, it’s all about celebrating happiness.
We have 8 stores in Delhi and presentence in ten cities apart from Delhi with all the international duty-free operators. Since the last one year, we’ve started selling in retailing outlets in Shanghai Airport and even Macao Airport in the last 2 months.
For the next 5 years, we’re trying to take this Indian heritage towards the European side. We are in talk with the UK market, German market, to start tie ups with their departmental stores.
2- What is your Target Group?
The last few years our consumer base which is dictated by the millennials mainly has been asking for some good health options. So, recently we’ve shifted all our dark chocolate to vegan. We have just introduced the vegan dark chocolate range which has nothing to do with anything remotely with dairy. It is very healthy with 55% cocoa and above. Apart from that, not just in chocolates, we also wanted to bring a concept of healthy foods, healthy nibbles. So that’s how this concept came out in GK II that we wanted to bring a cafe that has a pocket friendly yet healthy food menu. We’re doing lots of superfoods like quinoa, we’re doing lot of gluten free options, lot of vegan options even in the food. And the next big thing that we see is to expand this vegan menu to little more outlets within the Choko La domain.
3- So when you say health food, do you have a customer based / customization option as well?
Absolutely. The best thing about Choko La is that all of our chocolates are customizable. Whether it is a private event or a birthday party of two-year kid, or a wedding anniversary or could be a golden anniversary, we do all types of ornamental cakes, all types of chocolates with completely customization. In fact, we have a Limca Book of Record for creating this huge Christmas tree out of chocolate which was about 70ft in height at Select City Walk about 5 years back. We’ve been doing these big tier cakes that go to almost 14ft in height and you have to go on a ladder to cut those cakes. So that’s the level of customization we do. We had a customer, we cannot name them of course, the couple met in Santorini, Greece so they wanted the entire 8 tier cake to be completely based upon the theme of Santorini – how they met, how the guy proposed, how the girl said yes. So, everything was depicted on that big cake. It took us almost a month to prepare and it is one of our top SKU that more customers who came who wanted something like that. So that’s the level of customization we would like to go. It’s not just about the party or the wedding, it’s about understanding the client, client’s requirement and then customizing.
4- When we talk about the USPs, what is the unique selling point of yours?
As the word is drink chocolate together, so hot chocolate is our USP. We consider ourselves as one of the finest players when it comes to hot chocolate. We have 6 flavors right now starting from 35% to go up to 75%, 75% is our signature hot chocolate. We have won multiple awards for that.
5- When we talk about the stores, are they spread around different countries as well like in India?
We have 8 boutique stores including cafes and shopping shops which are completely company owned. These are all in Delhi NCR. Outside Delhi within India, we have partnered with duty-free operators, which is mainly our retail products. Not the food products, but our chocolate products. We are selling with Bombay Dutyfree, Kolkata Dutyfree, Chennai Dutyfree, Goa Dutyfree, Ahmedabad, we’re coming up in Hyderabad as well. And apart from that like how you’re asking outside of India, it’s again with duty-free operators. It’s mainly airport retail business outside our cafes.
6-What is the experience one would get when they enter the store?
Starting from the entrance right to the exit, it’s all about entering the chocolate world. The vision of Vasudha, who is the main founder of this brand, it was always about living in that moment; enjoying that one moment when you put that little piece of chocolate in your mouth. That’s what you get when you enter Choko La. It’s about happiness, it’s about celebrating anything that deals with happiness. And that’s our motto: celebrating happiness.
7- What would you want to tell your customers to expect in the new store?
If you come down to GK 2 first of all you’re most welcome to come here, try out our samples. Try our new healthy menu, the vegan menu, and superfoods. It is very rich in proteins and less in fats. So that is what we would want- you to get healthy and be hooked to Choko La.
