Big dry to Big Apple

THERE should be a law opposed to it, combining two of the most addictive food products in one package. But an Aussie company has done it with great success.

Jason O’Connor, marketing manager of Seatonfire Chilli Chocolate, said his product created the perfect symmetry of the deep, rich taste of chocolate followed by the overwhelming sensation of the chilli.

And from a broad way called Lazy Acres, near Murphy’s Creek, just outside Toowoomba in Queensland, Seatonfire is its devilishly-hot chilli chocolate to the cosmos.

The chocolate piqued the interest of confectionery buyers from London to Tokyo to New York at last month’s Fine Food Australia exhibition in Sydney.

Mr O’Connor, who left behind a 15-year marketing career in Melbourne to found Seatonfire! with his chocolatier mother Lynne Seaton-Anderson, will be in the Big Apple this week talking distribution deals, followed by business trips to London and Tokyo.

“It’s very exciting for a little farm in the intervening of nowhere to be able to have this product available to the world,” Mr O’Connor said.

While he was working in craft development for global fashion and jewellery brands - as well as running his own wedding planning business - the family farm back in Queensland was feeling the effects of the never-ending drought.

The cattle operations ceased, but the farm’s hardy 10-year-old chilli plantation prospered in the big dry.

Mother and son then hatched a plan to fill a gap in the global market for a block of chocolate with true bite.

“The Aztecs have been blending chocolate and chilli for a gazillion years but we did a tour through Belgium and France last year and looked at what’s available ! in the market and there was nothing with the effect of ours,&#! 8221; he said.

Mrs Seaton-Anderson has been making the chilli chocolate for with reference to six years, and the trip to Europe last year made her and her son realise just how well she was doing it.

“We did a lot of chocolate corrosive,” Mr O’Connor said, “and we realised that what she was doing was onerous.

“But we also realised we needed to introduce Belgian Courverture chocolate, and better packaging.”

He said the Seatonfire edge is the chillis, which are grown chemical-free and therefore don’t give the chocolate a bitter undergo.

Until the trip to Europe, Mrs Seaton-Anderson had been selling her chilli products - including chutneys, jams, chilli lime cordial (for vodka and ice) and chilli extract (for sanguinary marys) - in the local farmers markets.

“We now sell the chocolate online (www.seatonfire.com) and we’re looking for national and international stockists,” Mr O’Con! nor said.

It’s only been a year since development of the company began, with the company officially formed in April.

The packaging and branding was only finished a month the Sydney Fine Food Exhibition, but they still think Mr O’Connor’s own experience in pitching to the style-conscious, high-value end of the market.

“The packaging’s been designed as a gifting item to accompany a bottle of wine at a dinner squad or a thank you or a happy birthday or whatever,” he said.

“The promise of something beautiful is what we’re projecting with this product - but the product inside is the most exciting part.”

“It’s really a gourmet product and it needs to be carefully positioned,” he said.

The company expects its key markets to be those which have had a marked lift in chocolate imports, namely the US, the UK, Korea and Japan.

However, he insists Seatonfire will take! its time sewing up distribution, looking for “the perfe! ct fit&# 8221; with partners to represent it globally.

Mr O’Connor said he and his mother had some big plans for the company.

“Within three years we aim to have the chilli chocolate in every ski field in the world.” he said.

“And we have two products in development, a hot (as in chilli hot) chocolate cocoa and a hot chocolate sauce.”

Mr O’Connor said he did not deliberately set out to garner between nations interchange before establishing the company locally, it was just the way things happened.

“Our earliest interviews were at the Fine Food Exhibition in Sydney,” he said. “We were part of the Austrade group and it brought international buyers to us that is how we got the leads.”

While Seatonfire has gained some interest from David Jones locally, Austrade leading economist Tim Harcourt said the concourse was an example of a company that was “born global”.

“Th! ose businesses succeed internationally having to ‘make it’ before anything else locally, like Seatonfire, which has decided to keep on exports first rather than establishing good fortune in Australia first,” Mr Harcourt said.

“Global brands can be built from small local companies - especially in and regional Australia.”

news.com.au

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