Budapest on the map of the luxury chocolate market
According to vg.hu, the historic Damascene Ghraoui Chocolate recently opened its shop on the Andrássy Avenue. The company, which relaunched its business in Hungary after the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, will be present at the Salon du Chocolat of Paris as a Hungarian brand.
Ghraoui, one of the oldest Damascene trader families, opened its shop on the Andrássy Avenue – as Rania Ghraoui, the communications director of the company told vg.hu. She said that innovation is just as important in chocolate production as tradition, so out of the 120 products sold in the shop, several were made according to new recipes. The production is temporarily done in the factory of Csepel with 65 Hungarian workers, who were trained by six Damascene chocolate masters in the past three months.
They are constantly recruiting new workforce: one hundred people are expected to be working in the factory in a month. But this is only a temporary solution, because they plan on moving to the chocolate factory of Hatvan next October. The whole investment costs 7.6 billion forints (~EUR 24.4m), to which the state adds a 1.5 billion support (~EUR 4.8m). 540 new jobs could be created on 12,000 m2 in Hatvan.
Based on the plans, the Budapest-based factory will come out with at least 10 thematic collections every year.
The products designed for the Christmas and New Year festivities will be launched in the beginning of November. Until then, they try to popularise their chocolate creations through tasting events.
Besides Hungarian clients, the shop also served French, American, Australian and Chinese guests during the week that has passed since the opening. The Parisian Salon du Chocolat held between the 28th of October and the 1st of November will be a milestone, because it features 500 factories from 60 countries and attracts 120,000 visitors. The best part is that Ghraoui will be present as a Hungarian brand.