I work inside growing chocolate businesses to find where production capacity is being lost, make practical improvements with the team, and measure what changed.
Another person, machine, shift or more space. Sometimes that's the answer. Sometimes the capacity is already there.
Capacity tends to go missing in small ways across a production day. None of it looks dramatic on its own. Across a week, it adds up.
Chocolate waiting on a temper. Moulds waiting on the cooling tunnel. Someone waiting for the one person who knows the recipe.
Some waiting belongs to the chocolate: crystallisation and setting take the time they take. The rest is usually scheduling.
The trip to the walk-in for one thing, then back for the thing you forgot. The scale that lives on the wrong bench.
A few steps don't matter. A few steps, forty times a shift, across five people, do.
Batch sizes that made sense three years ago. Fillings made in an order that leaves the enrober idle while the ganache sets.
The right order depends on the products. Ganache needs time; some shells need to be filled today. That's where chocolate knowledge earns its keep.
Cleaning down between dark and milk. Re-tempering. Re-setting moulds and transfer sheets. Doing it all again after lunch.
Some of it protects the product: allergens and cross-contamination aren't negotiable. Some of it is just habit.
Where one person's job ends and the next person's starts, and the full tray that sits between them, waiting.
Unclear handoffs are where rework, double-checking and “I thought you were doing that” live.
The recipe only one person makes properly. The founder who still has to be there for the tricky batch.
It's often the most valuable capacity in the building, and the most fragile.
More saleable production from the operation you have, without changing the product you've agreed to make.
Just2weeks on site. That's it.
About 10 days on your production floor, with your team. Then two short check-ins to see what stuck.
Not how production is supposed to work. How it actually works. I spend normal production days watching how products, people, equipment and decisions move through the kitchen.
Separate conversations with the people doing the work and the people running the business: frustrations, waiting, workarounds, and the things you can't see from the side of the room.
We change things together, in real production, with your team. Not a report that management has to implement after I've gone.
Production runs normally. Then I come back: what stuck, what didn't, what the team adapted, and what needs refining.
No vague promises about “efficiency”. We both need to know if it actually improved.
What we might measure
Three quarters of the fee depends on this number. How the fee works
If I don't think there's something meaningful I can improve, I'll tell you.
As Head Chocolatier at Temper Chocolate & Pastry I ran flavour development and production: around 2,000 bonbons a week, plus showpieces and new products. Before that, pastry in hotel and fine-dining kitchens where service doesn't wait.
A general process consultant might see a slow step and cut it. I know which slow steps the chocolate needs, and which ones are just habit.
You don't pay anything to find out if I can help. And three quarters of the fee only comes due if the number we agreed on actually improves.
Discovery call
Free
We talk about what's slowing production down.
On-site visit
Free
If I think I can help, I come and see it. If the answer is really a new machine or more space, I'll tell you.
Diagnostic & plan
CAD $2,500
I watch, listen and measure a baseline. You get a plan, and the number we'll judge it by.
Implementation
CAD $7,500
We make the changes together. You only pay this if the agreed metric meaningfully improves.
Total, at most CAD $10,000
Book a free discovery callWhat counts as a meaningful improvement is agreed in writing before implementation starts. Travel and accommodation outside Greater Vancouver are scoped separately.
Sometimes the equipment really is maxed out. Sometimes the space isn't big enough. Sometimes another pair of hands is exactly what the business needs.
If that's the real constraint, I'll say so.
This is most useful when
Tell me a little about the business and what's getting in the way. It starts with a free discovery call.
