Oliva Clinton

Students Olivia Clinton and Lexie Majury have been carrying out work experience at Southern Co-op as part of their T-Level in Business Studies at Havant and South Downs College.

As part of our work experience, we had the pleasure of spending the day finding out more about Southern Co-op’s Local Flavours range with a visit to the headquarters and factory of the chocolate company Montezuma’s!

On Wednesday the 11 January, in the morning, Lexie and I were taken out by Debbie Lamb – a Local Product Specialist for Southern Co-op. When we arrived in Chichester, we were greeted by the lovely Charlotte, the National Account Manager for Montezuma’s.

Charlotte was able to show us all around the area starting with telling us about the interesting way the company was created. Husband and wife, Simon and Helen, both decided to leave their jobs as lawyers to travel across South America. Within their travels, they stumbled across cocoa plantations and the theatre of the local chocolate stores which was so far beyond what was available in the UK at the time. This gave them a lightbulb moment to create their own chocolate company back at home, giving it the name Montezuma’s. The unusual name comes from Montezuma, the Aztec emperor who introduced chocolate to the Europeans in the 1500s.

Simon and Helen started off in their kitchen moving into their first shop in Brighton in 2000 and selling out the first day! They have both worked very hard to make it to where they are now with a variety of wonderful products and packaging.

Once in the factory, we were taken through the process by two experienced employees, alongside Charlotte. They gave us a full insight of each step and how important they all are to the final product. The chocolate, from the very being to the very end, is specifically looked after to give it that smooth, pure, extraordinary taste.

Interestingly, the finer details are produced by hand, making it more authentic to the origin of the company. Within the tour of the factory, we saw how well organised and prepared Montezuma’s is for events like Valentine’s Day and Easter.

We were given samples of just a few of their products, where we learnt how the company switched to sustainable packaging and kept the beautiful and bright colours rather than changing to more natural shades that sustainability is usually associated with. Each individual product has its own unique colour combination linking with its flavour, making it stand out on the shelves within the local shops. All of the Montezuma’s packaging is either 100% recyclable, compostable or biodegradable.

One of the workers was in the process of making a truffle, very kindly let us experience a freshly made caramel truffle coated in white chocolate stripes and it is most definitely ‘extraordinary chocolate’!