Cocoa Pete's Chocolate Adventures

On Labor Day, 2002, Cocoa Pete’s Chocolate Adventures launched their small selection of gourmet chocolates at high-end supermarkets in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company’s founder, Pete Slosberg, had carved a niche out of the stagnant chocolate industry where he thought a startup could thrive. His strategy was in many ways derived from the strategy for his previous entrepreneurial success: Pete’s Brewing Company (makers of Pete’s Wicked Ale). Of significance was Cocoa Pete’s determination to substitute their own production facilities with the underutilized equipment of a larger chocolatier. Cocoa Pete’s gourmet chocolates were positioned as irreverent and fun to capitalize on the changing American palette where the more staid gourmet brands seemed inaccessible. Throughout the strategic planning and product execution were Slosberg and Cocoa Pete’s CEO Scott Barnum, pushing to change an industry.