When was Davies established?
Davies Chocolates was established back in 1932 by Sid Davies. Sid was a hard-working, gregarious young man who’d dropped out of school at 12 and worked his way up to being a steward at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. While on shift one day, Sid heard members complaining about the lack of high-quality chocolate in Australia. Being the entrepreneurial visionary that he was, he had an idea.
He enlisted the help of a friend, Mr McKenzie, a first-class confectioner who taught him how to make soft and hard fondant centres. He then enlisted a chocolate dipper, Mrs Hourton, to dip the confectionary by hand in his living room each evening.
Sid would deliver these hand-crafted chocolates to clubs around Sydney by bicycle. Over the years, Sid’s family and various friends joined the Davies team and it grew to be a very successful business that allowed him to enjoy the fruits of his hard work and buy his beloved cars and boats.
Sadly, Sid died suddenly at the age of 63 and the business was then fully taken over by his business partner and son-in-law, John Williams. Ultimately, John took the difficult decision to sell the company and it passed hands a few times over the years.
The Kowald family now keep the hand-crafted tradition alive. Of course, hand dipping is no longer an effective process. There is now up-to-date, small batch equipment and machinery for chocolate coating. Each production step is still individually controlled and checked to ensure the highest quality.
The timeline of Davies Chocolates
1932 – Sid founds Davies Chocolates and distributes them by bicycle to Sydney clubs.
1938 – Sid leaves his job as a steward, goes full-time into the chocolate business and employs chocolate dipper, Marie Marr.
1941 – WWII forces the factory to close and Sid is mobilised into the Army.
1943 – Sid restarts the chocolate-making business.
1950 – Thanks to hard work and resilience, the business begins to prosper and supplies about thirty clubs as well as the Governor-General at Admiralty House.
1955 – Sid takes on a business partner in the form of his son-in-law, John Williams. The combination of John’s practical abilities and electrician background and Sid’s entrepreneurial flair and ideas make for a successful partnership.
1968 – Davies Chocolates now supplies chocolate to 300-400 golf, bowling, league, RSL and country clubs as well as Ansett Airways and Parliament House.
1974 – Sid sadly passes away suddenly on the 20th of May at the age of 63.
1980 – John, who took over running the company very successfully, makes the difficult decision to sell to Ralph and Lorraine Keyes.
1985 – The business changes hands and Margaret Kimber successfully steers the ship for 28 years and introduces a range of chocolate-coated ginger products. Margaret also promotes the brand to retail outlets. Today, you can still find our chocolate boxes in David Jones thanks to her efforts.
2013 – The Kowald family (Noel, Jeanette, Simon and Sarah) take over ownership and a new era of Davies begins.
Talking chocolate with Noel Kowald
When Noel and his family took over the business in 2013, his background in large corporate businesses and familiarity with manufacturing management made it a smooth transition.
Tired of the corporate grind, Noel wanted to take on something of his own that he could get stuck into. Today, Davies has a stable team of chocolatiers and packers, many of whom have been with the company for years, creating the chocolates Davies customers know and love.
Noel notes, “The difference in our chocolate is that it is produced on small scale machines and every step of the process is controlled by a person, not mass produced. This means the quality is kept high by a hands-on approach.”
His wife, Jeannette, works as a schoolteacher but also makes time to get involved in the marketing side of the business and has a keen eye for aesthetics. She is the one responsible for making the shop and the chocolate hampers look good.
Ethical chocolate sourcing
At Davies, we source our chocolate from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and some areas of South America and Malaysia. This includes the all-important fermentation process that brings out the flavour of the beans. Davies chocolate is fermented naturally, in a similar way to the fermentation practices that have been carried out for thousands of years since the Mesoamericans started cultivating cacao around 1500BC.
The beans are then dried and processed in Malaysia to produce the cocoa powder, liquor and butter that make up chocolate. This is then pressed and shipped to Melbourne where it is turned into chocolate buttons ready for melting and creating the delicious chocolates on the shelves at Davies.
Noel notes, “From plantation to processing and manufacturing, throughout the whole chain of custody, our chocolate is Rainforest Alliance Certified. This means we use ethical practices, and the RA ensures there is no slave or child labour and works with the plantations to improve their husbandry practices, which results in them ultimately getting a better yield, quality and price.”
An example of this is planting canopy trees, which are tall trees that protect the cacao trees from too much sun exposure and so, allow them to produce more and better beans.
Chocolate and climate change
According to Noel, all cocoa plantations have to be established within about 10 degrees of the latitude of the equator. What this means is that there’s a relatively narrow band around the Earth where cocoa can naturally grow and much of that band is water.
Cacao plants need warm, tropical environments with high humidity and abundant shade to thrive. Essentially, they need rainforest conditions. But with global warming, desertification is happening where areas are becoming too dry for cacao cultivation. Deforestation also takes away the canopy trees that they need for shelter.
There is hope for the future, however. Planting shade trees (known in Brazil as cabruca) and breeding drought-resistant seeds are two adaptation strategies in the works. These, along with an increased awareness of and attempt to reduce climate change, will hopefully preserve our precious cacao trees for generations to come.
The future of Davies
Since taking over the business, Noel and his family have concentrated their efforts on maintaining the highest quality in Davies chocolate, as well as focusing on areas such as sustainability, ethical sourcing of ingredients, food safety controls, and using only natural flavours and ingredients.
They strive to maintain the family tradition of Davies Chocolates, the hand-crafted element and the unique recipes, while adding some modern equipment and making tweaks to ensure all products are gluten- and palm-oil free.
Davies started from one man with no formal education who had a dream and ambition. And through hard work, family effort and passion for chocolate, his dream was realised and continues to flourish in the hands of his successors.
Fun fact from Noel
Because at Davies, we use only natural ingredients, the balance of the fondant flavour to chocolate is a delicate one. Coffee, for example, is a flavour most people think of as strong, but when you coat it with chocolate, the chocolate flavour can completely overpower it. Whereas peppermint is incredibly strong and can easily overpower the chocolate flavour.
“That’s why we have to use 11x the measurement of coffee vs peppermint oil when making our flavoured fondants,” notes Noel.
The art of chocolate making is a complex business, but we love it and are looking forward to continuing the legacy.
