“I always say that it is our responsibility as a business to isolate our customers from any challenges we may have, which is something that working for almost a quarter of a century in hospitality has left on me,” says owner and founder of Cuvée Chocolate, Deniz Karaca.

By the time Deniz started Cuvée in 2015, he had been working with chocolate for almost 20 years.

“I like the fact that as producers we can create a product that is unique to us and what we set out to do as a business. When talking to our customers we can ensure them that our is chocolate like no other anywhere in the world.”

With cocoa being the main ingredient, and as the importer of this raw material, Cuvée relies heavily on a resilient supply chain, which, in the world of chocolate, has taken a major hit.

“Covid did certainly make things interesting, with prolonged shipping times and excessive cost associated. There are no suppliers of cocoa beans in Australia that could satisfy our requirements in terms of quality and quantities, so there is no plan B.

“That means we must always be on the ball; running out of cocoa would be catastrophic for our business.”

Prices have soared this year for the very first time, surpassing copper on the commodity market, and climbing more than 400% from the previous year. And, whilst cocoa beans are in short supply, cocoa butter is almost impossible to procure, says Deniz, with prices up by 8-900% and more.

“We had to buy a $100,000 cocoa butter press as a work around. Which, thankfully, means we are no longer reliant on third party suppliers. Cocoa beans come straight from the farms to us, where we roast, grind and press the cocoa onto cocoa butter.”

Deniz says that increasing regulations are making it almost impossible for many small businesses to stay afloat in Australia.

“Over the past few years, it has been getting increasingly harder and more expensive to run a small business in Australia, especially when it comes to red tape.

“We need more time to just focus on working on and growing our business, instead of spending all our time making sure we’re complying with more and more regulations.”

As for banks, Deniz says the most important thing is having a banking partner that understands the ‘grind’ and can match the pace the business is going at.

“I think the most important thing is to understand that small business operators are by nature nimble and pro-active in their decision making and execution, and as a bank we require a partner that can match this attitude towards challenges.”