New York Chocolate 'not dead' yet

County IDA: New York Chocolate 'not dead' yet
by Carol Thompson

January 27, 2007

Home of New York Chocolate- New York Chocolate & Confections Company is still planning to produce chocolate in the former Nestle facility in Fulton, pictured here, according to members of the Oswego County Industrial Development Agency. The IDA will continue to work with company officials in anticipation of getting the business off the ground. - Valley News photo by Andrew Henderson

Although New York Chocolate & Confections Company has not generated much news lately, or chocolate for that matter, two members of the Oswego County Industrial Development Agency said recently that there is still hope the company will eventually go into production at the former Nestle factory in Fulton.

IDA board members Morris Sorbello and Art Ospelt said in a recent interview that New York Chocolate should not be counted out yet.

"They are still trying," Ospelt said.

Sorbello said that the company had a rough start because of a civil war in the Ivory Coast. "All the players we were working with have changed," Sorbello noted.

In May of 2003, Nestle corporate officials closed their Fulton plant and transferred production to Brazil. Nestle had been producing chocolate locally for more than 100 years when the plant closed.

After Nestle left Fulton, two companies, New York Chocolate and The Fulton Chocolate Company, purchased the assets and sought to produce chocolate in Fulton. New York Chocolate, backed by a consortium of cocoa-bean growers from the Ivory Coast, purchased the building and most of the equipment.

In July of 2004, New York Chocolate purchased the assets of The Fulton Chocolate Company to become the sole owner and operator of the plant.

New York Chocolate would be the African cocoa-bean growers' first chocolateproducing plant. Farmers in the Ivory Coast produce 40 percent of the world's share of cocoa beans, but have never had a facility of their own to produce chocolate.

In 2005, New York Chocolate began producing dark chocolate but had to cease operations. It had also began making cocoa butter, cocoa powder, chocolate liquor, and crispy rice.

Sorbello said that when Fulton Chocolate went into the former Nestles building "they did nothing" and New York Chocolate had to buy them out.

Ospelt said there are people from the United States in there now working to get the plant in operation.

The IDA board members said that Jean- Claude Amon, of the African country, is still involved in the process, but that the company needed the leadership of someone from the United States who better understands domestic business operations. Differences in business culture had apparently hindered progress at the plant.

"They needed somebody from the United States to be a chief executive officer," Sorbello said.

Amon continues to be involved but Sorbello said the company needed someone who better understood the production end of the business. Both credited Amon for dealing positively with the cultural gap needed to be filled. They said Amon may have been overwhelmed by all of the regulations required in the states.

"They were really in overdrive," Sorbello said. He added that in the beginning the company started with the wrong type of attorneys and that it is now getting on the right track with the assistance of agencies such as the IDA.

"They've got people from this area in there now helping set up," said Sorbello.

"They didn't know how to operate in this country," Ospelt said. "I don't want this taken the wrong way, but they work slower."

Environmental studies needed to be done and should have been done when Nestle was present in the facility, Sorbello said.

New York Chocolate received $250,000 in assistance and has repaid their debt, Sorbello said.

"It's not dead," Opselt said.

The IDA will continue to work with company officials in anticipation of getting the factory back into production.