If you need chocolate moulds for Belgian pralines, take a trip to Chocolate World in Antwerp who specialise in the production of polycarbonate moulds and equipment for the chocolate industry.
Ran Dergent showed us around the shop and we had an opportunity to ask some questions about their products, their customers and their values.
Here’s what we found out about Chocolate World in Antwerp:
1. THEY ARE A POWERHOUSE IN THE CHOCOLATE WORLD
In the world of chocolate, they are a big deal.
Not only do their customers come to them from all over the world, but they have the biggest collection of different designs of chocolate moulds that you can find on the planet. Their chocolate mould collection totals 1,800 – that’s 3 times as many as their next competitor.
And it’s not just moulds. They supply the chocolate industry worldwide with tools and equipment, from filling machines and melting kettles to dipping forks and presentation trays. You name any tool, machinery or equipment related to chocolate, they’ve got it.
2. THEY DESIGN YOUR CHOCOLATE
It may be their corporate tagline – ‘we design your chocolate’ – but it’s also what they actually do. They literally design and produce chocolate moulds and equipment which you can use to make your own chocolate. They have two series of chocolate moulds, Series 1000 and Series 2000, each of which have different numbers of cavities and which can be designed to meet the needs of more industrial level production or a one-off session in the family kitchen.
Ran talked to us about the ‘History Lane’ of Chocolate World. Essentially, the shelves full of chocolate moulds are stacked in order of reference number, the lowest being the first moulds produced and the highest being the most recent. As you move down their ‘History Lane’, the moulds become smaller the further you travel denoting a trend for tinier more delicate chocolates in recent years.
Chocolate World in Antwerp also provide a service whereby you can design your own chocolate mould and they will make it for you. They hold your hand through the design process and come up with a mould that is exclusively for use by you. For those on a more modest budget, they offer transfer sheets for magnet moulds whereby you can create traditional or bespoke sheets with printed cocoa butter designs which you can add onto the top of your chocolate creations.
And they continue to design new chocolate moulds all the time, each year with a different theme. The theme for last year was comics and animation. Next year, they will be adopting an Arabian theme, reflecting their growing popularity in the middle east.
3. THEY ARE BELGIAN AND PROUD
The two Belgian Vermorgen brothers founded Chocolate World in 1986 and bought their first production unit – not in the country of their birth – but in Portugal. It wasn’t until 1995 that Chocolate World returned home to Belgium after being taken over by its current owners, Filip Buelens and Jan Neven, another two Belgians who are highly respected in the chocolate industry.
Ran explained that three things happened from that time which contributed to putting Chocolate World into its current position at the centre of the global chocolate industry.
“Firstly, the move to Belgium tremendously increased the quality of the products,” says Ran. “It was a focus of the new owners and a reflection on the engineering and chocolate culture in Belgium. Secondly, there was a huge increase in production both in terms of quantity and the diversity and variety of what was on offer. And thirdly, the new owners generated a lot of interest in their unique product by continuing each year to travel further and further around the world to tell people about what they were doing.”
Today all of their products are made in Belgium.
4. THEY EXIST FOR CHOCOLATE MAKERS
The vast majority of Chocolate World’s customers produce chocolates which are not automatic or wrapped, but which are handmade chocolates.
“There are three categories of customer for us,” says Ran. ” There are (1) those who have fallen in love with making chocolates for their family and recreationally (about 20%); (2) those who have been working away in their kitchen but have identified a market and want to sell some chocolate online or in a small shop (40%); and (3) real chocolate boutiques who want to expand into chocolate and coffee shops and adopt a more professional approach (40%).”
5. THEY DON’T JUST DO CHOCOLATE
Perhaps it was the name that confused us but we were surprised to find out that Chocolate World in Antwerp also sells waffle machines and various other equipment for making things besides chocolates.
Since they bought Sileto in 2004, they have supplied a huge range of bakery, pastry and ice cream preparation necessities including things like flexipan moulds, kitchen utensils and raw produce.
On their website, they state that ‘you can have your cake and eat it’.
HAVE YOU BEEN TO CHOCOLATE WORLD IN ANTWERP?
If you are passionate about chocolate and are thinking about making your own chocolate, check out Chocolate World and get your hands on some of their chocolate moulds.
*Disclosure: We visited Chocolate World in Antwerp as customers and paid for our travel to the shop and for the moulds we bought on our visit. This post was written with no commercial gain on our behalf and reflects our honest opinions about Chocolate World in Antwerp.
