The Child Chocolatier

When Louis Barnett was  just 11 years old, he was forced to drop out of school due to trouble he was facing with dyslexia and dyspraxia. Shortly after leaving, Louis decided to try his hand at baking, so he made a chocolate cake for his Aunt’s birthday. She loved it- in fact, she loved it so much that she began spreading the word to her friends and family and Louis found himself barraged with requests for his
chocolate cake, even some local restaurants began sending in requests. Louis was so excited and impressed by the how quickly people had taken to his cake, that he decided to make it into a business and just like that Chokolit was born. Louis was still operating out of his family’s kitchen making various chocolate goods when he decided to make a pitch to Waitrose, a UK grocery chain. He secured a meeting and had his parents drive him to the store and walk him into the manages office, then they left. The manager was confused and asked why they had just walked out when they had come just to pitch to him- when Louis told him that the business was in fact his and not his parents’ and furthermore that he would be the one making the sales pitch, the manager was thrown aback- that day Louis left with an order for 165 chocolate boxes. Shortly after, Barnett was encouraged to attend  the International Food Exhibition, where he pitched to Sainbury’s- another UK Grocery chain. After pitching , they asked Barnett to leave the room for a minute; when he was asked to come back in, they informed him that he was now Sainbury’s youngest ever supplier and further more, that he had just delivered the best sales pitch that any of them have ever heard.

The Growth of the Business

Barnett’s success continued to grow as he sold to more and more big name stores. Soon he had outgrown his facilities and his family was forced to renovate their garage into a working kitchen. His mom dropped her job to help Louis meet his orders but even that soon proved to not be enough. Taking a loan from his grandparents and several other small time investors, Louis was able to buy a small shop and hire a crew of ten workers. Now as at 20 years old, Barnett is working to penetrate the foreign market, and currently sells in South America as well as 14 US states- in fact, now only 5% of his sales come from his native Britain. Chokolit’s main mission now is to become the most innovative confectionery in the world, and works to make chocolate chairs, champagne flutes, and other distinctive products. With Barnett at its helm, Chokolit is well on its way to becoming a powerhouse in the growing Chocolate industry.