Billion-dollar chocolate company Godiva has launched in Australia and is planning to open 20 stores

While some local retailers were scrambling to keep up with challenging conditions in December, a billion-dollar global brand was setting itself up in the Australian market with big plans to capitalise on the nation’s sweet tooth.

Belgian chocolate maker Godiva, a brand international travellers would likely be familiar with, opened its first local store in the Emporium shopping complex in Melbourne’s CBD just in time for Christmas.

The brand turns over around $US1 billion annually, according to Bloomberg, and has focused on expanding into Asia, where the appetite for European chocolate is strong.

The company’s chief executive for Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, Jerome Chouchan, says that after crunching the numbers on customers in Australia, the expansion here was a no-brainer.

“When you look the consumption per capita of chocolate in Australia compared with worldwide, Australia is in the top 10. Per capita, you consume more chocolate than the Japanese,” he tells SmartCompany.

Japan is a star of Godiva’s global network, with around 288 of its more than 800 stores located in the region. Read more

Emma Koehn - Smart Company - 25 Jan 2018