Main Street Mavericks Business Spotlight: Branson’s Chocolates

Our last stop of the day on Day Four of Main Street Mavericks was at Branson’s Chocolates, an 18-year-old gourmet and artisanal chocolate shop serving everything from turtles to truffles, and everything in between. Owner Deena Branson started her chocolate career by working at Ashland Fudge Company and left working there to pursue her Business Management degree. When Ashland Fudge Company went out of business, Deena saw it as an opportunity to take an industry she loves and save the recipes from the beloved candy manufacturer.

Nearly 20-years later, Branson’s Chocolates has carved out its own name in the industry. Using top products and combining incredible flavors, this chocolate shop in Ashland is well worth a visit.

Keep on reading to find out more!

Q&A With Branson’s Chocolates

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your small business!

I am Deena Branson, owner of Branson’s Chocolates. We are located at 1662 Siskiyou Boulevard in Ashland, Oregon. We produce everything that’s right over my shoulder. That’s where everything is produced.

Branson’s Chocolates was started 18 years ago. But I’ve been in the chocolate business for 28 years now because I worked 10 years at a chocolate shop for three sets of owners. Ashland Fudge Company was in downtown Ashland, and I was in charge of staff and inventory. I had stepped away for about three years when my husband came home and asked if I knew they had closed their doors. And I did not want the recipes or the equipment to get lost at all.

So, we proceeded to try to figure out how to get financing. Unfortunately, the bank would not play ball with the downtown location. This is what they owe us. This is what we want. And it was before the recession.

But we started out 18 years ago buying the equipment and the recipes. So, my base recipes started from Ashland Fudge Company.

And so [building this business has been] trial and error. I didn’t have mentors that I could go find and ask questions. I didn’t have YouTube to look at. I didn’t have social media. I just had to figure it out and trial and error. And 18 years later, I’m here. Ten years ago, we created the retail side. We moved the business and opened the retail shop.

The biggest part of my business is actually wholesale. I have the retail, we have the website, and I still go out and do events. I have this really well-rounded model. But the opposite of most businesses, I started with the events and the website, then added the wholesale, and then added the retail.

That’s a little bit about how I got started and why I got started. My logo, this little guy right here, that’s part of the original logo from Ashland Fudge Company. I brought the nostalgia of the original business still into my business.

What’s a challenge I am facing, and how can the community help?

Well, the biggest challenge I’m actually facing right now is the price increase in chocolate.

Last week, I got a 30 percent price increase on chocolate. And that is not the only price increase I’ve received this year. So, that’s my biggest thing. And the way the community can actually help is to continue to support us, even though we probably will have to raise prices to cover it.

I can only cover for so long. So, that is my biggest hurdle right now.

Do you have a favorite thing you make here?

I do not have one favorite chocolate. I eat almost everything that we make. And I say almost because I don’t like coconut normally, and I don’t like coffee. So, I have tasted those. But do I choose them? No. Do I choose the peanut butter cups? Do I choose the lemon ganache hearts? Do I choose the dark chocolate squares? Yes, I do!

What is the best part about being a small business owner?

I can work with who I want to; I can work with my family. I’ve had my sister help me, my niece, my first employee was my niece, my second employee was my nephew, my mother-in-law worked with me, and my husband’s niece; yeah, it’s been a huge family business, and it also makes it so when I was caregiving with my dad, I could leave when I needed to.

Where if you work with somebody else, work for somebody else, you don’t get that option. So that’s a plus for me.

What’s a piece of advice for another small business owner starting out?

Get a mentor. Get people you can ask questions from. Doesn’t necessarily have to be in the same industry, but get someone within business that you can ask those questions.

That was probably the biggest thing that I didn’t do. I’ve never had a mentor, someone that I could always go and ask questions to. It makes a difference because you have the guidance and someone to bounce ideas off of, and you don’t struggle quite as much.

What is your proudest moment of owning a business?

I think there’s a couple. Being able to help the customers with those special occasions, being voted onto the chamber board by the other business members, and then being voted as the board president not just once, but twice. And then also years before that, I got the manufacturer of the year from the chamber.

All of those things are proud moments for me, things that I don’t say- I don’t put it out very often- but they are things that have happened to me in my business.

Can you tell us what it’s like to collaborate with other small businesses?

Since Muna at Lovejoy’s Tea Room opened her location here in town, we have been providing some of her chocolates and some of the desserts that she offers to everybody.

And this year, we actually created a couple for her; we revamped one and created two more to expand her selection of tea chocolates.

One is a Lady Grey, which is actually after her tea, Lady Grey, which is an Earl Grey and apricot tea. And mine is a dark chocolate Earl Grey ganache layer, one layer on that, and then the second layer is an apricot ganache, all in this cute little bonbon. And then I have an Earl Grey dark chocolate ganache.

We revamped the matcha and made it a matcha and raspberry ganache. So it’s two layers on that one. Yeah, we’ve had fun. She also carries a lavender sea salt caramel, and the lavender she carries is probably one of the most popular ones. We get the lavender from English Lavender Farm out in the Applegate. So, that’s another small business that we love collaborating with.

What is the process like for adding new products?

It can be a long process.

I make a tequila truffle. And that tequila truffle on the top has sea salt. It has a lime green lime shavings on top, and then I use Patron inside. It took my husband three years to convince me that it would actually sell. I’m like, no one’s gonna buy tequila and chocolate.

The first event we took it to was Portland. There were a lot of 20-something-year-olds over at the event. And I started by saying there’s Patron in it. Needless to say, we sold out, and he got to tell me, I told you so, for many years.

But now, most of the time, when we come up with an idea, as long as I have the time to do some R&D, it can be done within a month or less. Sometimes it’s even less.  Sometimes it’s something simple and easy like that, and sometimes it’s something on Instagram that I went, that’s cool, but let’s do it this way.

If we’re back here a year from now, celebrating something for your business, what are we celebrating?

At 19 years, I’ll have more bonbons. I will have mastered the use of my spray gun. I just started getting into that over a year ago.

If it’s round with a flat bottom, those are the bonbons. The hearts are the bonbons. They come out of a mold. And I’m spraying the mold with a spray gun and colored cocoa butter.

Yes, so like the hearts, the exotic fruit heart, I use a spray gun. I painted the strawberry and lemon with a paintbrush. The agave kiss is a paintbrush, and then I use a spray gun. The Lady Grey is two different techniques with a spray gun. Yeah, so I’m learning.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your business model?

When I started, I never thought I would do wholesale, so I never built that in, which was not right. I didn’t know it, and I’ve learned the hard way. But so when you figure out your costs, you always have to figure out what the physical product costs, what the labor costs, what the packaging costs.

Then, you have to mark it up enough to cover costs if you do wholesale. And then you have to mark it above that for whatever the retail costs are. So, wholesale, I make less money, but I do more volume. Wholesale is the bread and butter of my business. That’s three-fourths of my business.

But I make more profit from the retail, the website, and the events.

Specialty stores want 40 to 50 percent. Grocery stores want closer to 30. Yeah. So, during COVID, I had specialty stores, grocery stores, and feed and farm. My specialties closed. My grocery store and feed and farm stayed open.

Because those were necessary places, that’s what survived me during COVID. Yeah, I had lots of silver linings during COVID. I was able to take classes for the first time. Because they went via, they went online. Where before, classes were three days, five days by travel, hotel, everything. I couldn’t afford to be away from the business that long. Then, I was able to get financing and upgrade all my equipment.

What’s your favorite thing about your business?

It’s chocolate. It’s chocolate!

I get to see the smiles on the kid’s faces and on the parent’s faces. I get to see the kids after that special day: I got an A on that test, kind of thing. I went to the dentist, and everything turned out great. I get to see that.

So those kinds of things are really fun and nice to see.

Vendor Rundown

POS: Deena uses Clover POS (check out our review) to run her retail shop and when she goes on the road. She loves her Clover system and admits that having a dedicated rep who is committed to your business helps when she runs into any hiccups.