Business is sweet for Rachel Dunn Chocolates

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Dec 22, 2008 | by Janis Mara

CONCORD -- Kim Parr made the 40-minute drive here from her home in Rodeo for the apple of her eye. And when she got her hands on the 3-pound Fuji covered with caramel, chocolate and chopped almonds, she wasn't disappointed.

Parr and a constant stream of customers crowded Rachel Dunn Chocolates recently seeking caramel apples and other treats at the shop that reopened last year under the family that founded the business in 1984.

Parr purchased two large apples at $22.50 apiece and five small ones for $11.95 each for teachers at St. Patrick's Catholic School in Rodeo. Though she is cutting back somewhat in light of the current economic downturn, "I still appreciate the teachers," she said.

Indeed, the recession is little in evidence at the store. "We sold 16,000 apples between Dec. 1 and Dec. 30 of last year. This year, we're on track to sell 25,000," said Rachel Dunn, who founded the company 24 years ago with her husband Mike Dunn. Her business is projected to make $400,000 in sales this year, she said.

The Dunns started the business in their home kitchen and doubled its revenues every year, pulling in $2.5 million in 2004. But an employee embezzled from the company, putting what was then Grand Avenue Chocolates out of business in 2005, Rachel Dunn said.

Two other companies couldn't make a go of the business, Dunn said, so she and her husband decided to take the reins again in 2007.

Candymaking is not all sweetness and light, as Dunn's story suggests. The overall U.S. market is "largely mature," in the painfully apt phrasing of Packaged Facts, a Maryland publisher of food market research. Health and obesity concerns have kept consumption from growing, while the poor economy and other factors have dampened competition and innovation.

The business takes investment and is fairly capital-intense, Gary Guittard, fourth-generation chocolate maker and chief executive of Burlingame's Guittard Chocolate Co., told MediaNews in 2007. Guittard's company supplies the chocolate from which the Dunns handmake many of their confections.

However, premium and specialty chocolate like Dunn's is "thriving" despite hard economic times, according to Packaged Facts. And Guittard was optimistic about the company.

"They've always been very creative with everything they do, so I think they'll do a good job," Guittard said.

"This is my first time here," said Nancy Tyler of Walnut Creek at the Detroit Avenue store. "I was at a party last night and they had cut an apple into slices. Everybody was fighting over it."

The store also sells 3-foot-tall candy canes for $16.50 and truffles for $1.95 apiece. The handmade goodies can also be purchased at David M. Brian grocery store in Walnut Creek and Diablo Foods in Lafayette.

Leaving the sales floor, Dunn leads the way into the candymaking area in the back. Along with her husband, she has a hand in almost every job at the 12,000-square-foot retail store and candymaking facility.

The smell of chocolate is immediately evident in the room dominated by three-foot-wide, eight-foot-long cooling tables.

One table is an inch or so deep in molten marshmallow that resembles nothing so much as thick wet snow. The Dunns' son John is spreading chocolate sprinkles over the marshmallow, cupping his hands over the sprinkles, dropping a mound on the white surface and pushing it across the surface.

John's wife, Jasmine, and her mother, Delana Abbett, work in the retail store. Nick, the Dunns' youngest son, is also active in the business and his sister, Estee, ran the retail store for years.

The marshmallow will eventually be coated on all sides and cut into squares with a cutter, Rachel Dunn said. "The ingredients are egg whites, corn syrup, vanilla and salt. It's shipped out as soon as it's made," she said. An eight-ounce package goes for $6.95.

"I'm like a kid in a candy store, literally," said Vernon Davilla of Concord as he looked over the wares, pondering the classic dilemma: Milk chocolate or dark? What appeals to him is the freshness of the apples, Davilla said.

"They're one of a kind," he said.

Janis Mara can be reached at 925-952-2671 or jmara@bayareanewsgroup.com.RACHEL DUNN CHOCOLATES

Founded: 1984

Founders: Rachel and Mike Dunn

Address: 1021 Detroit Avenue, Concord

Phone: 925-798-8050

Products: Candy, particularly chocolate-and-caramel-covered apples

Employees: 20 at present, fewer after the holidays

2008 Revenues: $400,000