Averell French and Hellen Akiror were born and raised half a world away from each other—he in Jamaica and she in Uganda, but they grew up with one thing in common: cocoa. Averell’s family has farmed in the Mount Pleasant area of the Blue Mountains for more than 100 years, growing primarily coffee and cocoa. Hellen grew up around cocoa as well, coming from a family that makes chocolates. It was this shared passion for cocoa that led them to each other years later in London, where Averell was an architect and Hellen was an MBA student at London Business School completing a dissertation about fair trade practices, their impact on niche products like Blue Mountain coffee and cocoa, and how best to position these premium products on the international market. Averell connected Hellen to his father for research purposes and the rest, as they say, is history.
“My father was an agronomist and he was passionate about coffee and cocoa, so we had strains of cocoa that he had developed over many years and Hellen just loved it,” said Averell. His father had migrated to England in the 1960s, leaving the family farms behind. As an adult, Averell would travel to Jamaica every few months to check on the lands with the aim of returning permanently to renovate the farms and “do something” with the coffee and cocoa.
That permanent move came in 2009, and he and Hellen set about transforming their shared passion into a business. They spent some time building the capacity of the farms to produce enough cocoa beans for manufacturing purposes and made some investments in production systems. Coldbush Organics Limited was launched in 2013, with its flagship product being Mount Pleasant Farms Chocolatiers brand of chocolates. The range includes 70 percent dark chocolate bars—which come in several flavours, milk chocolate bars and truffles. They also produce cocoa butter and cocoa powder.
A family of chocolatiers
“Hellen comes from a family of chocolatiers, so she wanted to explore more of the Jamaican flavour band since we have one of the best cocoa beans in the world, and because we farm in the Blue Mountains, there is a difference. It has a distinctive taste – creamier, less acidic,” said Averell.
He initially wanted to focus on coffee, but Hellen convinced him to go with chocolates instead. Highgate, the once popular local brand, was no longer in business, so there was a clear opportunity there. “It wasn’t hard to explore the Jamaican cocoa bean flavour. It is the best balanced, not overwhelming processed, bland or bitter. People always ask us how our dark chocolate is not bitter. We have a unique blend. It takes a lot of research and perfecting, trying to find the balance,” she said. “When we started, most people said dark chocolate wouldn’t fly in Jamaica, but the Jamaican market loves it. Many people thought we were only doing it to export, but we thought, if it can fly everywhere else, it can fly here, too. I didn’t see it in the market. How can you judge something when you’ve not offered it to the market?”
Today, Mount Pleasant chocolates are becoming increasingly popular, appearing on shelves in more and more supermarkets, pharmacies, and hotel and airport gift shops. Averell and Hellen have always sought to ensure that cost is not a reason Jamaicans won’t purchase their products over an imported brand. Hellen acknowledged that pricing was a challenge early on, since the chocolates are essentially specialty items and are not mass produced, so they don’t have the advantage of economy of scale. “There isn’t a big difference between our pricing and the regular chocolate bars,” said Hellen. “Our main goal from the beginning was to give the customers a quality and genuinely world class product that they could take anywhere and feel proud that it’s Jamaican.”
“Because we’re farm based, that gives us a bit more flexibility in controlling the quality from post-harvest right through to the processing,” added Averell. Currently, some of the processing is done on location at the farm and some is done at a factory in Bull Bay, St. Andrew.
A plan for financing the business
Like many entrepreneurs, the couple started out by financing the business out of their own pockets. They tasted some success right off the bat and were able to sustain operations by constantly plugging the earnings back into the business. However, due to their commitment to keeping their prices at an affordable level, they didn’t see a big profit margin.
This pushed them to begin to search for outside financing sources, starting with the “extremely challenging and exhausting” process of applying for loans. Realising that this wasn’t the best avenue for them to pursue, they halted the process and turned their attention to alternative options, such as grants.
The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship was very helpful when they started as they won the organisation’s Made for More pitch award. They worked with the Centre again to fine tune their application for the Development Bank of Jamaica’s (DBJ) IGNITE grant in 2016, which awarded them J$2.5 million dollars. They’ve also won a few more awards that helped with either financing the business of increasing its profile in the local business sphere. These include a Jamaica Observer Food Award for their chocolates and the Junior Stock Market Pitch Award.
Coldbush Organics was also recognised in the National Bakery Bold Ones of Manufacturing initiative for their use of natural resources, tax compliance and labour market impact, as well as the Guinness Trust Award for social impact. “We are part of the community so we work with the community,” said Averell. “In addition to employing people from the area, we also allow employees to occupy parts of the land where they can grow what they need in order to supplement their salaries.”
Additionally, they have formed partnerships with organisations like the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) that have helped with branding and distribution, all of which combined to help make the business an attractive prospect for the next phase of their financing journey: angel investment.
Investing in the vision
“We first learned about FirstAngelsJA through the Branson Centre. We got a call from them saying that the DBJ wanted a number of companies to be part of a training programme that BizTactics Limited was offering in collaboration with the DBJ,” said Hellen. “The Branson Centre helped us put things together. We went through the training programme and from there, we were given a chance to be coached to pitch our ideas to FirstAngelsJA. Sandra Glasgow, a Co-Founder and Manager of FirstAngelsJA helped us prepare our pitch deck and our projections and how we presented our company. We learned a lot from that process and in October 2018, we received an investment from 11 FirstAngels members and syndicates in October 2018. We established a Board of Directors chaired by an independent director and two angel investors as well as me and my husband/co-founder Averell. The Board meets regularly to review our achievements and financial statements, guide us in strategic planning and keeping us compliant with government regulations and taxes.”
“In 2022, four investors subscribed to Jamaican Dollar Cumulative Redeemable Convertible Preference Shares issued by Coldbush Organics. The funds were used to finance a number of initiatives, including working capital to import packaging and labelling, hire new staff, purchase and install new equipment.” Hellen added.
“Chocolate making is expensive business. You’d be amazed at how expensive each piece of equipment can be and it takes different types of equipment. As we grew, we needed bigger and more equipment, which was a challenge for us,” said Hellen. “The biggest impact we have seen since the financial investment is that our production has improved greatly. We are now able to produce more chocolate and reach more customers. We are able to supply retailers more consistently and get into several new outlets also.”
Another benefit of being under FirstAngels’ wings for the Frenches is the coaching and mentorship they have received. Hellen acknowledged that this aspect of the investment helped them cement their vision for Coldbush Organics, which is to revive the Jamaican cocoa industry and put Jamaican cocoa on the world map. “It puts you in a position to see the bigger picture, not just the business you’re running. It helps you see where you want to go and how to grow from every challenge,” said Hellen. “We have a most active, professional and well managed board, so we are proud and really happy for that. That’s helping to shape our company faster than we would have imagined.”
Unlike a lot of entrepreneurs who approach the prospect of angel investment with some trepidation, the Frenches were not afraid to sell shares in their company in exchange for an equity investment. Hellen shared, “When we were forming our business from day one, we knew that for us to grow we couldn’t make it on our own. Look around at all the companies that have really progressed or are doing really well—very few of them have made it on their own. There’s always investment. To us it didn’t mean they will take our company away. It meant we would grow stronger.”
She continued, “I think it was our passion, our knowledge and our vision that attracted them to us. They immediately saw that we had a vision to grow and the Angels are so passionate about Jamaican growth. The goal is to impact the economy and contribute to the individual’s growth as well. That’s something we share with them.”
Jamaican cocoa to the world
With production in 2024 now at a steady level of almost 4,000 bars of chocolates and team balls per month, the Frenches are looking forward to increasing their output and being able to get their products into more local outlets and to step out into the export market. Mount Pleasant chocolates are currently exported on a small scale, but the couple have their eyes on establishing a presence overseas, beginning with the European market. They have attended several overseas Business Forums and received encouraging feedback. “We’ve always felt we wanted to be available in Jamaica first. We’re achieving that to a certain extent and the next step will be to export so we can share or products with the European and American markets,’ said Averell. “We can’t afford to have one of the best cocoa beans in the world and not take advantage of it and take it to the world.”
Another aspect of the couple’s vision is to upgrade Mount Pleasant Farms to incorporate a factory for full-time, on-site production, and to develop an educational and an eco-tourism component as well. This will expose those touring the property to their sustainable, community-based farming model.
Hellen believes this community-based business model is an important aspect of overall economic growth, which is why she urges established members of the business community to start or keep investing in smaller companies. “Because of these investments, we have been able to increase the number of people that we employ and if more people are working, they are able to add to the economy. It’s an investment in the passion and skills of Jamaicans,” she said. “And if you have more people employed, it will dent the level of security issues we hear about every day. Small businesses tend to take on unskilled workers and train them and that’s important. It supports the growth of community and the economy overall.”
The Frenches urge their fellow entrepreneurs to not be afraid to explore the idea of angel investment and also to be bold in taking the initiative to approach the various government bodies that are there to help small companies. “A lot of people will say they don’t know anyone who knows anyone, so they feel they can’t approach them, but when you’re brave enough to go on your own and say you’re looking for help, people are always willing. That’s what we found out,” Hellen shared.
Averell added, “Just ensure that you have your plans and projections in place. That way you can say, ‘This is where I am today and I expect to be here in five years.’ Figures can show where you need to grow and what you’ll actually need to grow your business. Organisations like the DBJ and the JBDC have been really important to us. I think there are some really good structures in Jamaica at the moment and small businesses should take advantage of these opportunities.”
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WHERE TO FIND MOUNT PLEASANT CHOCOLATES
URL:https://www.pleasantchocolates.com
Shops: Things Jamaican stores (Devon House, Norman Manley and Donald Sangster international airports), Pegasus Hotel gift shop, Loshusan Supermarket, General Food Supermarket (Ochi Rios and Liguanea), S Foods, Kingston, Fresh Approach, Coconut Industry Board, Carby’s Discount Souvenir Discount Centre, RADA Agrimart, Progressive Foods (Montego Bay and Portmore), MegaMart (island wide), Fontana Pharmacy Montego Bay, Haughton Pharmacy, Mandeville and Clinicare Pharmacy
