Vikas Panjabi a first generation Enterpreneur and Chaitanya Kumar Co founders of The Chocolate Room were studying in Australia when they regularly visited a restaurant serving chocolate delicacies. “It prompted them to think of an idea that will bring a complete chocolate culture in India,” Panjabi says. They started India’s first chocolate café in their hometown, Ahmedabad, in 2007. Today, their menu consists of 100 beverages and desserts made with chocolate.
CURATING RIGHT IS AN ART
The café chain uses traditional Italian crockery called cuddle cups or hug mugs, which are very popular among customers. “Our crockery till date is unique, patented and trademarked and it was launched by us in India,” shares Panjabi, who is catering to around 60 to 180 customers daily depending the kind of model the customer is visiting which includes kiosk, café and a restaurant. The group also started franchising way back in 2009 as they wanted to expand quickly. “We were very clear that in one year if the brand works, we will take the franchising route to make it more visible,” adds Panjabi who believed that no company can open up 50 outlets using their own money.
EXPANDING GLOBALLY
The group has gone the reverse way by opening their first outlet in a tier II city. “Our first store in Delhi came after three years of our existence, before that we were focused in smaller cities and towns making people aware about the product,” he says. For them, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurgaon has turn out to be lucky when doing more business. With 300 plus chocolate cafes across India, The group is planning to open 500 stores by 2023 covering the whole map, wherever they are not present, focusing on those small towns, where people have not tried something like this. The group has also expanded its wings to Dubai, China, London, USA, Nepal, Bangladesh and a few other countries by opening close to 10 stores.
Entering into FMCG:
The Chocolate Room celebrating its 15th Aniversary Globally has now post pandemic launched its range of menu products as merchandise which customers can now take home with them from there cafes, and also made its presence on Amazon, Flipkart and Big Basket. Products such as Hot chocolates, Coffees, Waffle Mixes, Pancake mIxes, Brownie mix, Cookie mix, Belgian truffles and Pralines, and very soon coming up with a Vegan menu and merchandise for the Indian market.
