Pancracio has revolutionized the history of chocolate in Spain, successfully placing its products in some of the world’s most exclusive stores. After thirteen years in business, the company is now ready to take a new leap forward. In the short to medium term, its aim is to continue growing, opening new concessions and stand-alone stores inside and outside Spain, without losing its momentum in online sales.
So far, Pancracio has evolved at a fairly calm pace, focusing mainly on creating and consolidating the brand and the time has come for us to take a major leap forward by opening our own stores, now that we understand the brand. Given the structure and size of the company, it would be complicated to try to appeal to a broader clientele or lower our prices. However, it is also clear that as a brand becomes better known, customers are willing to pay more.
The secret to Pancracio’s success lies in having brought an original product to the market, with an air of exclusivity, in addition to the high-quality raw materials and unconventional packaging. In order to stand out and compete around the world, we’ve focused our strategy on differentiation in a range of aspects. First, in order to be exclusive, we’ve gone for a simple yet effective design, utilizing materials that identify us as a luxury brand, with a chocolate that’s designed to be enjoyed. And in order to ensure a unique product, we are constantly innovating. At the same time, our communications area publishes chocolate-related news and recipes to create added value. We are continuously innovating in the area of social media. We’re currently focusing on increasing our presence on Instagram, using our product image and recipes. We also opened the first online chocolate shop in Spain, from which we now expect to gradually expand sales to elsewhere in the European Union and the rest of the world.
I chose to create a brand that was a little retro, a throwback to the old-time coffee shops and bakeries but with a lean, clean, modern, and contemporary image.
My History as an Entrepreneur
I first had the idea for Pancracio in New York in the late 1990s, in the midst of the great boom in gourmet coffee establishments, though it took a few more years to germinate. As an economist, marketing consultant and businessman, I could clearly see the business possibilities. However, I am a perfectionist, so I began by studying confectionery and catering. I even worked in the famous Bruno Bakery in New York, under chef Biagio Settepani.
In 2003, I began to see an upswing in the chocolate market, which was still one of my passions. I chose to create a brand that was a little retro, a throwback to the old-time coffee shops and bakeries but with a lean, clean, modern, and contemporary image; an affordable, high-quality product designed to be consumed or given as a gift. Pancracio is a small, highly exclusive brand of chocolate and other related products, all with one common denominator: high quality and a design that astutely combines tradition and avant-garde. That was the start of Pancracio. My aim was to get started slowly and enjoy myself.
In the summer of 2003, I set myself the target of having a Pancracio product by the end of the year. That part was easy; I took a course with Fabian in Barcelona and looked for someone in Belgium who could produce the recipes I had in my head so that we could carry out the first tests. Finally, I found an artisan chocolatier with his own workshop and a great passion for quality who could produce a hundred units of our best-selling turron. As the final touch, the white boxes that have now become the firm’s hallmark were manufactured in Cadiz and I packaged the product in my own humble office. This was in early December 2003. I mostly gave the turron to family and friends, though I also sold quite a lot in a store run by some people I knew. Everyone was delighted and they came back for more. Pancracio products are still created in this intuitive way. It’s a traditional formula; you start by designing an idea, making a prototype, and satisfying a need.
We see branding as a continuous process –slow, changing and never-ending– ranging from product development to the overall brand vision, to give a coherent and cohesive image.
The Product Idea
When we have a good idea, we run a feasibility study to see how much it would cost on a small scale, and then we design, create, and launch the product. If it proves popular, we continue production. The idea for the product can arise in any situation, working or travelling. Over these years, we’ve done significant work on managing our range, since as a brand, Pancracio grows gradually. An emblem and a brand get built up continuously, little by little. We see branding as a continuous process –slow, changing and never-ending– ranging from product development to the overall brand vision, to give a coherent and cohesive image.
One year after Pancracio’s launch, in early 2004, we had already set ourselves new targets: developing a website, selling in outlets outside of Cadiz, and creating new products. The first part of the plan was easy enough, but for the second part I realized I’d need to decide what kind of channel and store Pancracio needed. On my travels I’d noticed that as well as stores specializing in gourmet food, another new type of establishment was emerging – clothing or furniture stores that also included a designer product mix ranging from books to electronic goods and food products, targeted at a sophisticated and demanding public.
We also saw that it was necessary to expand our product range, so we started producing our iconic Pancracio box range, which included almonds, truffles, chocolates and bars, all tied up in our signature bow with our logo on it. We designed new turrons to expand the range: white chocolate with passion fruit, black chocolate with Jack Daniels… and in 2005, we launched our website and our sales catalog outside Spain.
When we have a good idea, we run a feasibility study to see how much it would cost on a small scale, and then we design, create, and launch the product.
The Colette Effect
Everyone was talking about an establishment in Paris called Colette, a very sophisticated place with a water bar. With a sort of boldness born out of ignorance, I sent the proprietor an email. After quite some time, I received a reply—which I still have—saying that they would like to retail Pancracio at Colette. This was important, at least at a symbolic level: in their newsletter, the proprietor wrote this wonderful sentence saying that from Spain they had received “a wrapper to keep and a chocolate to devour”.
A special mention goes to Pancracio’s original chocolate vodka, a triple-distilled crystalline product that smells and tastes like chocolate because it is emulsified with cocoa in a seventeenth-century distillery. It’s an artisanal process, using the highest-quality wheat and barley spirit. This product has won numerous international awards and has been launched on a small scale in the United States—only in New York and in just forty outlets including restaurants and hotels. We have also created a special US-oriented version of the website, originalchocolatevodka.com, just for this product. I think our chocolate vodka could develop almost independently of the rest of the brand, in all kinds of stores. It’s a whole new market.
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