DUBAI, July 22 /PRNewswire/ --
- Award-winning Chain to Offer Innovation, Fashion and Flair to the
Luxury Chocolate Market
Alison Nelson's Chocolate Bar, the New York-based chain of cutting-edge
gourmet cocoa emporiums, is set to launch 10 stores in India and Pakistan
through a partnership with Dubai-based HFK General Trading.
Known for its high-quality cocoa and unusual flavour combinations such as
"salty pretzel" and "malted milk", Chocolate Bar employs an artful approach,
using graffiti-influenced chocolate-bar wrappers designed by iconic New
York-based artists. Bespoke gift presentations include embroidered, bejewelled
gift boxes, stunning handbags and limited-edition bowls created by Jonathan
Adler, a popular designer recently featured on Oprah.
A recent (October 2007) Euromonitor study estimated that
chocolate confectionery comprises 30 percent, or a healthy USD 203 million,
of the expanding Indian confectionery market, and with a rapidly growing
middle class, wide-spread mall culture, and booming luxury market, the market
for luxury chocolate is wide open.
HFK Holding is based in Pakistan, with a main branch in Dubai.
The total turnover of the company is over USD 50 Million. The company's
activities include major investments in real estate, sugar mills and sugar
works, rice mills, and trade in many commodities including sugar, rice,
lentils and other food items with key clients in Europe, Middle East and
Africa.
The company's CEO, Hassan Khan, is confident that Chocolate
Bar's concept boutiques are tailor-made to fill the luxury confectionery gap:
"India and Pakistan are virgin soil for unique, high-end food concepts.
Alison Nelson's Chocolate bar is an amazing brand and a unique concept that
offers us not only a chocolate cafe, but also a fresh, vibrant blend of
fashion and art, which is exactly what our consumer is looking for. I am sure
it is going to be an unprecedented success.
After establishing ourselves in the industrial/manufacturing
side, and to capitalize on our real estate strength, one of our objectives
for 2008 was to expand and have direct contact with consumers--and what
better than to start by offering them some really good chocolate!"
Consumers will join Chocolate Bar's A-list fans such as celebrity Sarah
Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johanson, Leonardo
DiCaprio and Uma Thurman, who all rave about the presentation and most of all
the adventurous flavour combinations: Nelson's boutiques prove that the
world's favourite sweet goes with everything: at the sleek outlet in New
York's upscale Henri Bendel store, a typical sandwich is made from a melted
dark 72% chocolate bar dabbed with olive oil and sea salt. Gourmet chocolate
from high-quality cocoa beans can be eaten, drunk, or even used in the
store's own line of cocoa-based beauty products.
The story behind the boutique is as unique as the tastes that can be
found within: Nelson launched Chocolate Bar six years ago with an initial
investment of only USD 75,000 and since that time has risen to the heights of
the business world. In 2006, she was named one of Crain's Business "40 Under
40" and in 2007 received the Inc Magazine's award for one of the "Fastest
Growing Private Companies in America".
HFK Trading
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