Former musician Stiv Kahlina (El Bahattee) and his wife have started a luxury chocolate manufacturing business.
Malo & Slatko manufacturing business offers an authentic product, different from mass industrial products, available on the market as Taman Chocolates, Poslovni dnevnik reports on September 5, 2017.
The production of the artisanal chocolates combines traditional methods with a modern approach. Stiv Kahlina, former hip-hop musician and designer, known as El Bahattee, and his wife, Sanja Vladović, both chocolate enthusiasts, started their business two years ago. Stiv is the main chocolatier in charge of production and he attended Ecole Chocolat – School for Chocolate Arts in Canada and became Master Chocolatier after attending Belgian Callebaut Chocolate Academy.
“Our only motive at the beginning was our love for chocolate. When we decided to make a business out of it and invest our savings into it, we performed a serious market analysis and saw that there was room for us there,” Stiv says. Their products stand out because of their taste, but also design – Stiv has worked as a designer for years, so aesthetics is equally important as taste to him.
“The market reactions are amazing, even though these are refined combinations of tastes. We are aware that the market needs to be educated further, which we have been working on, but we are also happy to have been recognised and accepted by a demanding audience of gastro connoisseurs and enthusiasts. We have found our loyal buyers during the first year, which is very important for small producers,” Kahlina says.
In early 2017, they started exporting their chocolates to Japan, albeit in small quantities.
“This is one of the strictest markets for chocolate, which we consider our big personal success, especially considering the fact that it was a company specialising in importing sweets from Belgian and French markets that found us and insisted we started delivery as soon as possible,” Kahlina said.
They offer 12 products in retail, and their 35% milk chocolate with coconut, lemon, and lemon grass won a bronze award in the category of best global artisan chocolates from the prestigious Academy of Chocolate in June, in the competition of more than 900 products from 190 producers and 37 countries. The other part of their offer consists of working directly with final customers, offering corporate gifts or personalised items.
“Manufacture by hand means that we produce small quantities, but I don’t think that that limits us, on the contrary, it ensures fresh products without using artificial preservatives, and we can be more creative and use top ingredients the use of which does not pay off in mass production. Small quantities also means that we can be more flexible and answer specific buyers’ needs and desires better, which is more difficult if you’re a big producer,” Kahlina explains. They started their business using personal savings, so there are no loans and they can dictate their own growth rate. They are careful with new things and present one or two new products every six months. They mostly cooperate with small delicatessen shops because, he says, they neither have the capacity nor interest in supplying big supermarket chains.
“We have recorded better results than in the same period last year when we entered the market, but a true benchmark for success is the period between Christmas and New Year,” Kahlina explains. They intend to focus more on export. Currently, they are in the process of negotiating with specialised shops around Europe, and Kahlina hopes that the state administration will give them the necessary support. “We are young and we offer somewhat unusual products for our market, so we consider being on the market and the fact that sellers contact us wishing to sell our products in their stores a great success,” he concludes.
Translated from Poslovni dnevnik.
