Business Model and Value Drivers of the Chocolate District

This chapter is the result of research carried out in the chocolate sector and its main aim is to illustrate the most important features of an area that is frequently described as “recession-proof”. Products are characterised by the “lipstick” effect because consumers are prepared to give up most luxuries in an economic crisis, but not chocolate. In fact, chocolate sales have seen continual growth over the last few years. This research aims to comprehensively outline the sector through analysis and study of the “chocolate industry”. It will illustrate the industry’s environmental prospectives and competitive trends both at international and national level, while rounding up the data with an in-depth look at the historical and traditional district in Piedmont. With this in mind, we will use the framework interpretation represented by the business model Canvas to highlight the cocoa-chocolate value chain with its standard processes and relative incisive factors for success. These factors - key resources, key partners, key activities, etc. – allow the companies of this sector to create economic and social value for all their stakeholders. We will conclude by illustrating some case studies of chocolate businesses that represent different parts of the chocolate value chain and therefore have distinct and specific degrees of vertical integration and horizontal concentration. We hope that this chapter will contribute to the reader’s knowledge of this apparently mature sector which has thousands of years of history and a value chain which has undergone fundamental changes in recent years and which has a strategic role in the global and local economic market.