MORE than a decade ago, Maureen Williams had a “crazy dream” that she would run her own chocolate shop. Having conquered that, her sights are now set on having a brand as strong as Cadbury or Charles.

Williams founded Chocolate Expression in 2011. The Mandeville-based company produces a wide variety of chocolates, which it distributes to pharmacies, craft markets and souvenir shops in the tourist towns of Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Negril, as well as Mandeville and Kingston. “Ever since I was a child, I really loved chocolate and sweets,” Williams explained, detailing what’s behind her passion for the business.

“I had a dream that I was going to open a chocolate shop. When I told my family, everybody just laughed and asked, ‘What kind of crazy dream is that?'” she recalled.

Her vision began to manifest when she got a marketing job at, of course, a chocolate shop in the US. After honing her skills there for seven years, she returned home to start Chocolate Expression.

“When I was abroad I learned how to make chocolate. I was in charge of marketing so I had the full range of how to make, package and market it,” Williams revealed.

Williams at first did not find the going too ‘sweet’ in Jamaica, as here she encountered numourous bureaucratic challenges.

“You have to be running all around and there’s no institution that walks you through the process,” Williams said.

“I found out I had to get a TCC (tax compliance certificate) when I was in a jam,” she revealed, arguing that “You have to get yourself in a bind to get information; it is so discouraging.”

Furthermore, Williams came home with the intention of opening her shop in one of the two major airports, but that did not work out, and neither did her desire to start up in Ocho Rios or the Trelawny port, which she attributed to high rental costs.

“So I decided to set up a shop at home and got the necessary approvals,” she noted.

That decision has been working out well so far.

The production process at home involves roasting and grinding blocks of semi-sweet chocolate until it turns into a paste, following which the different ingredients are added, said Williams, the company’s only employee so far.

Chocolate Expression utilises an array of local and imported raw materials as inputs. Its most popular sweet products are rum & raisin and chocolate, roasted coconut and chocolate, and roasted coffee and chocolate.

Seeing significant growth potential in the business, Williams is looking to access funding to buy an enrober machine, used to coat nuts. An enrober machine typically costs in the region of US$50,000 ($5 million).

“We have lots of fruits in Jamaica but we don’t have any value added, so I am planning to use up all the fruits, including almonds, cashews, peanuts and mangoes, which I would dehydrate and cover in chocolate,” Williams said.

She added: “I would love to get some (capital injection) because the business is growing and I can see where it can go. My goal is to see Chocolate Expression in every supermarket and shop, like Charles and Cadbury.”

In three to five years, the chocolatier said she envisions the company becoming a leading supplier of turn-down (chocolate) service to hotels.

“There are a lot of tourists coming to Jamaica and they love our coffee, chocolate, coconut, rum & raisins etc” Williams declared.