Arthur Azzopardi and Neil Hitchcock share the same passion for chocolate: that’s possibly the only thing the two have in common.

Fifty-two-year-old Mr Hitchcock retired three years ago from his IT job and moved to Gozo from his native Australia. The first eight months of retirement “was a holiday”, but he then got bored and “needed to do something”.

“I noticed there was a gap in the market for a touristic chocolate place,” says Mr Hitchcock, “so I thought, ‘let’s open a chocolate factory’”.

Mr Azzopardi, on the other hand, already had something of a background in chocolate, his father imported the stuff. In turn he, too, started importing chocolate.

In 2007 he was awarded a gold medal for selling the most Caffarel chocolates per capita in the world; and he noticed that Turin-based Caffarel had been chocolatiers to the kings of Savoy, whose arms included the flag of the knights of St John. This led Mr Azzopardi to think that there must have been a chocolate connection with Malta.

Eventually he found it in an eight-page manuscript titled Trattato della Cioccolata written in 1658 by Giovan Francesco Buonamico that provided a chocolate recipe that included orange peel, spices, nuts and aniseed. (Buanamico was born in Malta in 1639 and was a writer, poet, doctor and a naturalist. He died in 1680 aged 41.)

It took Mr Azzopardi six years of “studying” and working on Buonamico’s recipe until he got “all the ingredients in the correct proportions”, and by 2015 he started producing truffles and his signature chocolate bar – Unica 1658 – from his Ħamrun workshop. He named his company Chocolat.

Mr Hitchcock, meanwhile, who had little knowledge of the chocolate business “surrounded” himself with people who do. He “put together the best team” he could find, led by pastry chef David Pulis, and opened the Malta Chocolate Factory in Buġibba in August 2017.

Although he lives in Gozo, Mr Hitchcock says he wanted his outlet in a big volume area such as Sliema or Buġibba; he opted for the latter because of its large resident and transient population, and “there’s lots of foot traffic”.

And the choice has been a good one. The Malta Chocolate Factory also houses a coffee shop and “it’s going very well”, says Mr Hitchcock, “tourists drop in regularly and there’s repeat business”.

People like chocolate and appreciate it as a gift or souvenir if packaged with a Maltese Cross and the word Malta, it’s an alternative “to fridge magnets, tea towels and spoons”.

Chocolat produces 300,000 truffles a year.

Naturally the chocolate factory’s product line is not solely aimed at the tourist market, a lot of residents come through its doors.

“We offer a range of gifts for Christmas and Easter… corporate bodies buy hampers from us,” says Mr Hitchcock and adds: “an association just bought 500 chocolate bars that will be personalised and co-branded”.

Both Chocolat and the Malta Chocolate Factory produce a range of staples including truffles, pralines and the ubiquitous chocolate bar.

Malta’s chocolate industry is still in its infancy, but it’s already made a mark for itself in the marketplace

Chocolat’s Unica 1658, for instance, comes in nine varieties including ‘originale’, orange, ‘extra orange’, grape, ħelwa tat-tork (halva), nougat, coffee and chili. And next year Mr Azzopardi plans to introduce a creamier version of Unica with whole nuts, as opposed to crushed, in a jar “as a gourmet item”.

While Mr Azzopardi is more conservative in his approach – “I try to keep with traditional Maltese recipes”, he says – Mr Hitchcock looks for new items that he feels are marketable.

Recently introduced are colourful chocolate shoes and handbags, for example. “The shoes came to me three years ago,” explains Mr Hitchcock. “I saw them in a supermarket in Berlin and went ‘wow’. They were chocolate and the idea stuck in my mind.

“The handbags are a new addition, we only introduced them about two or three months ago. Both have sold well.”

Both companies are small by European standards, but for a market the size of Malta’s their output is impressive.

Mr Hitchcock’s Malta Chocolate Factory buys “five to six tons of chocolate a year” and turns out about 60 products, up from the 30 or so when it opened 17 months ago. Its bestsellers, and kids’ favourites, are love hearts and turtles (that come in boxes of 16).

Over at Chocolat, Mr Azzopardi says he hand makes 300,000 truffles a year – each weighing 12.5 grams. Annually he also imports around five tons of chocolate.

The two buy their raw materials from Belgium’s Callebaut, the world’s biggest supplier of chocolate. In Chocolat’s case, Mr Azzopardi ensures his chocolate is produced from Ecuadorian cacao seeds, as Buonamico’s recipe directs.

Coincidentally, both companies are looking at new outlets at Ta’ Qali. Mr Azzopardi will be moving the Chocolat factory there by the end of next May, and the Ħamrun premises will be converted into an exclusive chocolate retailer.

Mr Hitchcock also plans to open a second outlet in Ta’ Qali for his Malta Chocolate Factory next year – that’s where coach loads of tourists go.

Malta’s chocolate industry is still in its infancy, but in the short time it’s been around it’s already made a mark for itself in the marketplace.

Mr Hitchcock and Mr Azzopardi approach it in different ways, one is a traditionalist who has revitalised a 360 year old recipe for Maltese chocolate; the other has introduced his locally manufactured product to a worldwide market on his doorstep.

Both, with their enthusiasm and belief in their products, have set the foundations of an industry with a bright future.