Experience Chocolate in Dublin

Tourists and chocolate lovers will get a taste of the chocolate-making business when Butlers opens a visitor centre at its Dublin headquarters in Clonshaugh tomorrow.

Called the Butlers Chocolate Experience, the new centre will provide group tours and demonstrate how the Irish brand makes its famous chocolates.

‘‘We have a great factory for the past six years. It has always lent itself to visitors but we never got around to opening it up to the public," said Aisling Walsh, marketing director of Butlers Chocolates.

‘‘Now more than ever it is important to have a deeper connection with our customers. It offers another way to do that in addition to our cafe network around the country."

Established in Dublin in 1932, Butlers Chocolates opened its first cafe on Wicklow Street in 1998. There are now 15 such cafes in Dublin, Cork and Galway, as well as one in London and franchises in Pakistan and New Zealand. Walsh said that Ireland has one of the highest rates of chocolate consumption in the world but that while the market was recession resistant, it was not recession-proof.

‘‘We have extended the range of price points so people can buy a box of chocolates for less. We are very conscious of that and €10 is now quite a critical price point," she said.

Walsh said Butlers had expanded into many more markets over the past year and exports had grown dramatically and compensated for the challenging business environment in Ireland. ‘‘We have doubled the number of countries we export to last year, and now export to over 25," she said.

The 90-minute Butlers Chocolate Experience, which costs €12.59 per person, will include a film on the history of Butlers, a tour of the factory in Clonshaugh, and an opportunity for visitors to decorate their own personalised Butlers chocolate bear to take home.

The company employs 250 people in Ireland and the firm is owned by the Sorensen family. The firm is now an unlimited company and does not file accounts.