A few years ago, Anne Sellmer decided to follow her passion and established cōchu Chocolatier in Calgary.

Today, the business has grown so much that she is looking at the next step in its evolution.

“We make boutique luxury chocolates that are award-winning. Since we launched, we’ve won 87 national and international awards,” said Sellmer.

Along the way, the company has also won numerous medals at the World Finals. It’s been named 6-Star Grand Master Chocolatier and one of the top 10 chocolatiers in North America.

“And we’re handmaking it all here in Calgary.”

There’s a small urban chocolate factory in East Village, adjacent to downtown Calgary, with a retail storefront, near Studio Bell (National Music Centre) and the Central Library. The brand is also sold through other retailers.

“What we do is we’ve taken a very traditional craft and tried to make it contemporary. We’re trying to do innovative things with the chocolates. We have a heritage building that has been renovated with that mix of traditional and very contemporary. So it really fits with who we are,” said Sellmer.

“What started out as a home-based business out of a passion, just something I really loved to do, evolved really fast when we realized how we were competing on the world stage. We put a commercial kitchen in our house and now we have this 5,500-square-foot facility.”

Sellmer was a stay-at-home mom for 13 years with three boys Cole, Charlie and Hugo prior to embarking on her entrepreneurial journey. The company name cōchu is the first two letters of each of their names.

“We used to try to teach them to find what they were passionate about and follow their own path. And when I was going back to work my youngest threw that back to me and said ‘are you doing what you love?’ and I realized no I’m doing what fits with your schedule but if I went back and did anything what would it be?.’ So I made a shift when I was 40 and I thought if it didn’t work I would model to the kids that if you don’t try it will not happen. And if it doesn’t work, then you still keep going and you pick yourself up and move on.

“So it seemed fitting we named the business after them because it was really inspired by them to lead me down this path.”

cōchu was officially launched in February 2017.

The concept has taken off with demand internationally for the chocolates.

“We’re looking at it going, we have this demand on the world stage and we are not currently meeting that. This is what led me to the (recent Alberta Business Transitions Forum) in Calgary,” explained Sellmer.

“My husband and I own the business 100 per cent. We have grown organically and we get regular requests for investors to invest and we haven’t gone down that route yet. We have funded either ourselves or through bank loans or through government grants, but recognizing that we have these opportunities to expand in the market.”

The recent Forum provided an opportunity to gather information about options for investment and growth.

“I don’t have a business background and I really like to gather a lot of information. This was a great learning opportunity. A great way to get information on different perspectives and learning from other people’s experiences was quite valuable to me in growing this business. So it gave me that opportunity to hear from different players, different perspectives, in these different agreements,” she said.

“Although I’m not necessarily taking that step now, I want to have a very thorough framework for when the time comes that we do take that step.”