The 50 shareholders who assembled at the Ocho chocolate factory on Saturday were provided with a robust marketing and financial blueprint to steer the company back into the black.
Most came away not only with a sense of optimism for the future, but also a few bars of their favourite craft chocolate, bought using their shareholder discount.
The craft chocolate company has been struggling with production and sales issues since it moved into its new Roberts St showpiece in January this year, reporting a loss during its first full reporting period of $445,000.
Also of concern to shareholders was a decline in total equity from $2.1million to $1.45million, since its 2017 fundraising.
Ocho chairman Jim O'Malley said initial production limitations and other manufacturing and sales problems had been rectified and the company now had around $60,000 worth of stock ready to go out the door in time for the important Christmas trading period.
He said Ocho had now contracted a new distributor and was looking forward to getting into a cash-positive position from this month.
The company was forecasting profit of about $420,000 for the next financial year.
Mr O'Malley said the turnaround was testament to the hard work of the Ocho team, which had responded to the challenges the board had set them in March.
"At that stage production wasn't even close to where it needed to be - we were producing around 5000 bars. Since then we've more than tripled that to around 18,000 bars, which is getting pretty close to our current capacity of around 20,000 bars."
A key focus of the board had also been on generating sales and getting the right people on the team, he said.
"We recognised early on that along with a strategy for growth, we needed to put focused, full-time management and marketing people in place and let them drive the business."
To that end Dale Clements, from food ingredients company Allied Pinnacle, had been appointed as general manager, starting next month, while Steph Sykes, former sales and signage manager at Miller Creative, had already started as new sales and marketing manager.
Ms Sykes, who has been in the role for two weeks, told shareholders her focus would initially be on reinforcing the brand's credibility in the South Island, getting product into major grocery chains, through retail sampling opportunities and through tourism and hospitality.
She said the price war in the North Island made it "pointless" for Ocho to enter that market just yet.
"However, we accept that we are in a price-sensitive market, so we need to focus more on our core strengths - our story, the appeal of our brand and of course the quality of our product."
"It needs to be more about creating an enjoyable and memorable experience," she said.
Ms Sykes said the company would be pursuing alignments with corporate New Zealand, and offshore, when it made commercial sense to do so.
Some shareholders voiced approval of the new direction.
Shareholder Jo Millar said there was a lot to be positive about.
"I didn't invest a lot, but when I put my money in I didn't expect to see any profit early on.
"I think they've done well under the circumstances, particularly getting community and banking support.
"Let's face it, the banks want a return, so they must see value in the brand.
"I think most of our 3500 owners do too."
