Love At First Bite

Love At First Bite

By Jean Gruss

Editor/Lee-Collier

Norman Love still remembers the day he got the e-mail from Godiva in 2002.

A vice president from the Pennsylvania-based chocolate giant asked to come to Fort Myers to visit Love's chocolate-making operation and discuss becoming a supplier.

Love was understandably apprehensive. After all, Norman Love Confections consisted of a tiny 700-square-foot office in a medical-office building off Interstate 75 near the airport. It was a bare-bones operation: A single room housed the chocolate-making equipment, a phone and a desk. Love's wife, Mary, took orders by phone and didn't even have a credit-card processing machine.

But Godiva's call shouldn't have been a big surprise. USA Today named Love one of the country's top artisan chocolate makers in early 2002, delivering instant fame. Godiva contracted with Love to make special lines of holiday-themed chocolates in 2003 following a successful test run in upscale department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue.

"Godiva has transformed me from a pastry chef to a chocolate manufacturer," says Love, 46. This year, he made 2 million pieces of hand-made chocolates for Godiva and 4 million for other accounts. This year, Norman Love Confections recorded $3.5 million in revenues in 2005, up 150% over last year.

Love moved up the ranks of the pastry business through various hotels and pastry shops, preferring chocolate because it required an artistic flair. He learned his craft in a patisserie (a French pastry shop) in a small village near the southeastern French city of Cannes in the early 1980s.

After a stint at the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Ritz-Carlton tapped him in 1989 to become the pastry chef at the newly opened Naples hotel. Within a year, he was named corporate executive pastry chef and helped open the pastry operations in 39 new Ritz hotels around the world.

Love says it was through his travels with the Ritz that he discovered new flavors that would eventually make his chocolates famous. For example, the sweetest coconut in the world comes from Thailand. That is what he uses today for this coconut truffle. Likewise, honey comes from Tasmania, vanilla from Tahiti and almonds from Spain. Of course, he imports the chocolate from Switzerland.

By 2001, Love says he was on the road 42 weeks of the year overseeing pastry chefs in Ritz hotels all around the world. With two young children at home, he says he wanted to settle down in Fort Myers.

Make small batches

So Love quit the Ritz in 1999 and rented 700 square feet in a medical-office building off Daniels Parkway, east of I-75 near Southwest Florida International Airport. Friends owned the building and charged him $200 a month for the space, utilities included. He says he spent about $10,000 to get started.

His intention was to make small batches of chocolates for wholesale distribution to hotels and restaurants. Then, in February 2002 lightning struck. USA Today named Love one of the top artisan chocolate makers in the country. To this day, Love doesn't know how he came to be picked, though the source of the article was the editor of a chocolate-industry publication who probably had sampled his sweets. In fact, Love didn't know his name had appeared in the national newspaper until thousands of calls came pouring in.

Later in 2002, Godiva came calling. The company wanted to freshen its brand, and Norman Love was just the kind of up-and-coming chocolatier executives were looking for.

Love says his advantage over rivals - and what attracted Godiva - is that he turns his chocolates into tiny works of art. His chocolates' swirls and glazes are visually stunning. Well-established competitors such as La Maison du Chocolat feature brown, square chocolates that all look alike. In a recent Consumer Reports analysis, Love's chocolates ranked above those from the world-renowned La Maison du Chocolat. "Why can't they all be pretty?" Love says. "I wanted that wow factor."

Love ships his chocolates via FedEx and UPS. In the summer, he uses next-day delivery, and in the cooler winter months he uses two-day delivery. Even though the temperature in the back of FedEx trucks can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, Love says he has never lost a batch because of the special insulated packaging he uses. "It made my business," he says. "I can ship to Las Vegas in the summer."

For the 2003 holidays, Godiva agreed to test Love's chocolates in Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus under the brand called "G." Love and a fast-growing staff whipped up 350,000 pieces of chocolate. They sold out before Christmas. It turned out to be Godiva's most successful holiday chocolate item.

Godiva then wanted Love to make chocolates for other occasions, such as Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. So Godiva helped finance new equipment, and Love borrowed about $70,000 from Old Florida Bank and AmSouth Bank to build a 6,000-square-foot facility across the street from the medical-office building where he started. Love says he also invested $500,000 from the profits of his growing business. He now has 20 employees and brings in temporary workers to help load the FedEx trucks. (One recent evening, he recruited his son's high-school wrestling team to help load the trucks.)

More than helping to finance the equipment, Godiva lent him valuable expertise. Godiva is owned by Campbell Soup Co., whose team of food scientists helped Love make sure his chocolates stay fresh. The secret to freshness is lower water content; the less water he uses, the longer the chocolates stay fresh. Love's own lines of chocolates are moister and creamier than those he makes for Godiva, but they contain more water and have a three-week shelf life. His Godiva chocolates have a six-week shelf life, but they're not as moist.

Godiva also helped Love establish systems for keeping the facility super clean. Although Love is a clean fanatic, the threat of multimillion-dollar lawsuits from consumers who find something inedible in their chocolate is that much greater when deep-pocketed corporations are involved.

From that first batch of chocolates in 2003, Love now makes 2 million pieces a year for Godiva. He's already working on Valentine's Day shipments; he shipped 5,300 boxes in the first week after Christmas.

Godiva is not Love's only customer, however. He recently started supplying Wegmans Food Markets, the upscale supermarket chain based in Rochester, N.Y. Love also works with a distributor called Swiss Chalet Fine Foods. The Miami-based distributor sells Love all the ingredients he needs, and he sells them back the chocolates for distribution to more than 100 retailers.

To help him grow his business, Love had to look far to find qualified pastry chefs. He recruited them from luxury hotels and restaurants, including one from Le Bec Fin, a highly rated French restaurant in Philadelphia with a legendary dessert cart. Except for a few employees who came from the Ritz in Naples, none is from Fort Myers.

He says his reputation for creativity attracts top chefs. "These are accomplished professionals," Love says. "Our success is solely based on that."

HOW LOVE SATISFIES WALK-INS' CRAVING

As its reputation grew, chocolate addicts started seeking out Norman Love Confections near Fort Myers.

But Love's facility was a wholesale operation. He wasn't prepared for customers walking in off the street. "We even had pilots and flight attendants driving around here looking for us," recalls owner Norman Love, because of his proximity to the Southwest Florida International Airport.

So in 2004 he opened a small tasting salon in the part of the building that fronts Daniels Parkway. It features a lighted display case with gleaming trays of handmade chocolates and pastries. With its half-dozen tables, Love wondered: "Is Fort Myers ready for $70-a-pound chocolate?" Love wondered. Much to his surprise, the store turned a profit in just four months and grossed $1 million in its first full year.

Based on the success of his Fort Myers salon, Love plans to open another one in leased space at the intersection of Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach roads in Naples this year, and he's scouting other locations, including one in Sarasota. Much of the store expansion will be financed with profits from the business and conventional bank loans, though Love won't go into the financial details.

The salons allow Love to grow his business without increasing production in a big way. And the retail business offers larger profit margins than the wholesale business, though Love declines to elaborate. During a recent visit, a customer joked that he had to take out a third mortgage to satisfy his chocolate craving.

Despite the wholesale success with Godiva and other large distributors, Love says he's reluctant to grow the manufacturing side of the business because he's afraid he'll lose some creativity if he does.

"We're facing a very difficult decision," Love says. "I don't want to be this monster company. I want to come to work to be creative and have fun."

The hours seem to take a toll. Love works 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, for most of the year. When the company lands publicity, such as a recent plug in Southern Living, Love says he receives a crush of orders. For example, Love had to shut down sales on his Internet site two weeks before Christmas because he was so busy.

"We'll have to pull the reins back a bit," he concludes.