Who doesn’t love chocolates? But then again, some chocolates are too sweet or too bland, and the good, imported ones are excruciatingly overpriced. But with Columbus Sweets and Treats, finding the perfect chocolate to suit your taste and budget won’t be an ordeal. This family owned business specializes in producing varieties of chocolates according to the customers’ needs and preferences.
“Three years ago, we wanted to do something creative and my parents came up with the idea of a chocolate business,” says Palistha Shakya, marketing head at Columbus Sweets and Treats, adding that they understood the demand for good chocolate in the market. “Nepal didn’t have its own local chocolate brand and everything was being imported. We wanted to change that and decided to give the business a try,” she adds.
Tooth Decay is not a curse
At the moment, Columbus Sweets and Treats prepares different kinds of chocolates from dark and semi-dark to milk and white. They also make chocolate bars and cater to bulk orders. Columbus Sweets and Treats is specially known for its low cost. The price of a single bar of chocolate ranges from Rs 50 – 150. For bulk orders, however, the price varies depending on the quantity ordered.
Shakya says that people often mistake them for other chocolate brands as they are easily available at grocery stores. However, Columbus Sweets and Treats’ first priority has been to promote local raw materials and nothing about their brand is ‘foreign’ or ‘imported’. “Our products aren’t wrapped in fancy packaging. Instead, we use Nepalis handmade Lokta paper. We want our chocolates to be completely Nepali and promote the Nepali tradition through them as well,” says Shakya.
When they first started, they began making chocolates at home but now they have a factory from where they operate. Despite having made it thus far, Shakya confesses that it’s hard for them to sustain the business in the current market due to lack of publicity. Problems like wholesalers not readily accepting their products to chocolates melting in the heat are things that make them work doubly hard to do better and promote their business.
And Shakya has been dealing with the challenges head on and can be seen at different exhibitions and farmer’s markets around town promoting the family owned business. Every Saturday, she’s at Baharmahal Revisited where she has managed to gather a good clientele. “It’s immensely satisfying when people praise your work,” she says adding that she’s looking forward to providing better refined chocolates in the future, hoping that it will give her brand equal, if not more, importance as other fancy imported labels.
(The Week Bureau)
