Donini Chocolate L.P.

Donini Chocolate L.P.

Location: 335 Bell Boulevard, Belleville
Employees: Approximately 40 locally
Operating locally since: 1979

History:
The Donini family arrived in Belleville more than 30 years ago with an old-world chocolate recipe and a vision. Today, they are a thriving company of 40 employees producing high-quality specialty chocolate.

It all started in Vigevano, Italy, 60 years ago and they continue this European tradition of excellence at their North American plant in Belleville.

Products/Markets:
Donini specializes in dark chocolate (produced by adding cocoa butter and sugar to cocoa liquor), milk chocolate (dark chocolate made with milk), white chocolate (milk chocolate without the cocoa liquor), and couverture, the highest quality chocolates rich in cocoa butter. They make blocks of all-purpose and no-sugar-added chocolate, bits, buttons, sticks, wafers, truffle shells, and a special chocolate for shaving made to stand up to a sharp blade and roll off in curls, all in dark, milk, and white chocolate. They also send tanker trucks of liquid chocolate to Toronto and Quebec with tanks heated to 40°C.

They’ve never been asked to make a life-sized statue of Apollo out of chocolate, preferring to leave such orders to specialty moulders. They also don’t compete with the makers of mass-produced chocolate such as Cadbury’s and Hershey’s. Donini’s chocolate maker, Vigilio, uses European recipes in the tradition of the Belgian or Swiss chocolatiers.

As a small company, Donini focuses on quality, innovation and distribution. Donini small size allows it to bring new products from the conception stage to market faster and to be flexible to adapt to the changing needs of its customers. Recently Donini has also been increasing its presence in retail grocery stores.

Another successful innovation is producing chocolate products that complement wine. Not only is the taste divine but the flavanols found in chocolate are similar to the antioxidants found in green teas, berries and red wine. The key is the right chocolate with the right wine. Generally, dark chocolate pairs with red wines and lighter chocolate containing fruit such as cranberries pairs with white wines. This has proven to be so successful in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Prince Edward County and Pelee Island that Donini has appointments in the Sonoma Valley, California, to discuss an expansion of the product there.