Ocho Chocolate general manager Liz Rowe said this time last year, the factory was just a dream, but the company had raised $2 million from 3500 investors in 48 hours through crowdfunding platform PledgeMe.
About $500,000 of that had been spent on the new Italian-sourced manufacturing equipment and the rest was used to refurbish and create a production space in the new Roberts St factory in Dunedin's harbourside area.
"We're pretty excited about the fact that it's only a year since we did the crowd funding, and we think we've made a huge amount of progress.
"All of this building has been fitted out, the machinery has been bought and installed, and we're ready to start making chocolate next week.
"We're pretty proud of that. The team has worked incredibly hard."
Ms Rowe said an Italian engineer would visit the factory next week to set the machinery up and make sure it is running correctly before production begins.
Once the machinery was running at capacity, it would be able to manufacture up to 200kg of chocolate per day.
Previously, the company was only able to produce 90kg per week at its Vogel St facility, she said.
It was hoped tours would start early next year.
