The story so far...
Established in 2012 by Andrew Kennard, Desire4food was to be the focus of his passion for creating exciting and innovative chocolates. Since he started cheffing in the family events business at the age of 14, Andrew had always intended to open his own food business. Whilst continuing to help over the next 30 years with the family business, he took another direction in his full-time career of being a Chartered Accountant. However, in 2009 he lost the majority of his eyesight. 7 operations and multiple procedures later, he thankfully regained his eyesight and took what had happened to his health as an inspiration to finally establish the food business that he had always envisaged.
After much research, development and help from eager foodies, he launched his range of dark, milk and white artisan chocolates. A few years later, a friend stated that they had never been able to find good tasting, vegan, Kosher filled chocolates. Andrew took upon himself the challenge and in June 2016 came out with 8 flavors of high quality, artisan chocolates, that happen to be both vegan and Kosher (Registered with The Vegan Society and licenced as Kosher by the Federation of Synagogues (KF)).
Confident in how good our chocolates tasted, Kennard's entered into the Academy of Chocolate awards 2017. The awards do not have a vegan category and we were therefore competing against all types of chocolates, with an excess of 290 entries from over 35 countries. We were honoured and delighted to recieve two bronze awards for our Triple Espresso Capsule and the Peanut Butter Truffle.
The Kennard’s range has expanded to currently include single flavour chocolate boxes, 3 different sizes of assorted chocolate boxes and 7 different flavors of 100g chocolate bars.
It’s not just chocolate
We take great pride in the presentation of our chocolates, from the high quality design to the beautiful materials used for packaging. We only use top quality ingredients with no flavor inhancers; on this we will never compromise.
We believe this makes our chocolates stand out not only as something amazing to eat, but also as an amazing gift.
Why should you make a pledge?
Who doesn’t love chocolate? Who doesn't love a small family run business that are passionate about what they do? If these are things that you too are passionate about, then pledging towards our campaign is the perfect way to help ensure that the wonderful tradition of creating beautiful artisan products continues. As a reward for your pledge, you will receive delicious chocolate products as well as on-line discounts. This is detailed in the rewards scheme on the side of the page.
Please know that your pledge will not be wasted: we have a 4-stage business plan, detailing precisely how the funds would be spent in an efficient and suitable manner (we have summerised the key points from our business plan in the paragraph below). We appreciate whether you are able to pledge £5 or £5,000 as everything helps!
What will we use the funding for?
In October 2017, we will be moving into a 1,000 Sqft unit. The funding we receive will partially be used to fit out the unit with newer, larger equipment. Additionally, we will be able to purchase a van enabling us to not only produce larger quantities of chocolates but also deliver them around the UK. This new unit will also facilitate the start of our export plans, starting with the USA from January 2018.
The company currently sells in independant retailers, online and at pop up shops throughout The City of London. We also sell through third party websites, such as Borough Box. Upon completion of the unit, we will then be able to undergo a Safe And Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) audit allowing us to supply national retailers whilst continuing to support local independant retailers.
In addition, the funds will also help maximise economies of scale, meaning we will be able to keep the prices of our chocolates stable whilst the company grows. The growth of the company will allow us to hire more staff, with specific dedicated roles in areas such as marketing, social media, sales and production. We will also look to take on apprentices to keep the art of chocolate making alive and support those looking to obtain skills in order to build a career.
We plan on expanding the amount of talks, seminars and corporate team building days. These will provide companies and groups of people the chance to have fun whilst taking part in team bonding opportunities. Having a chocolatier who previously worked as a Chartered Accountant gives us a unique understanding in order to run these corporate events.
Please check out our website https://desire4food.com/shop---kac.html to see the full range that we currently offer. You can also visit us on social media either on Instagram (@KennardsChocolates), Twitter(@kennardsartisan) or Facebook (Kennard's Artisan Chocolates), where you will be able to see comments from people who have tried our chocolates and absolutely love them!
Thank you so much for reading about our campaign. We appreciate every pledge made towards it and hope you enjoy the tasty rewards. If you are unable to make a pledge, it would be greatly appreciated if you could spread the word to your friends, family and collegues about our wonderful chocolates. Keep an eye out in the future where you will see Kennard's Artisan Chocolates in a shop near you!
For more examples of our amazing chocolate creations that have been made by Andrew, keep scrolling down.
Easter 2017
Valentines 2017
Christmas 2016
Commissioned chocolate creations