Reducing Costs During A Difficut Economy

A friend of mine and Fellow Chocolatier Ed Engoron of Chocolatique has put out the following Call to Action. Please join us in reducing all of our costs on controllable expenses.
Please read his comments below.

Tracey Downey
Downey's Chocolates

As we continue to see changes in our national/world economy we should all become more concerned about keeping our costs in line with that of the mood of the general buying public.

As artisan chocolatiers and confectioners we never want to be seen competing on price. It is our fine chocolate, exquisite packaging and wonderful customer service that brings customers to our doors, and websites. That doesn't mean we should be concern about our costs and the selling price of our chocolates. Chocolate futures have risen by almost 40% since December of 2007. We have all seen our packaging cost rise with the decrease in value of the dollar. Many of us who ship door-to-door are paying high fuel surcharges to FedEx and UPS.

We all have many of the same “common costs,” i.e. liability insurance, health insurance, shipping, commodity ingredients, basic packaging, cartons, credit card discounts, heat control barriers, etc. To our way of thinking, it makes good business sense for us as an association to bring our purchasing power together to negotiate better costs on those expenditures for which in the past we seemingly have had no control. I have found this to be beneficial in two other associations where I have been a member.

If you have a sincere interest in reducing your costs and possibly offer lower prices to your customers and better, more affordable benefits to your coworkers, families and yourself, I hope that you will take the time to be heard on the association website by responding to my call for action.

Thank you.

Ed Engoron
Choclatique

for more information go to www.finechocolateindustry.org