Hauser Chocolatier, a Westerly confectioner sweet on its products

Rudi C. Hauser Jr. has advice to offer for Valentine’s Day, but be warned: He has a vested interest in the subject.
“Chocolate is delicious, it’s wonderful. I think you should eat chocolate on a regular basis, in moderation, even just one good piece of chocolate every day,” he said. “I’m told there are studies that say it’s good for you, in the same way as a glass of red wine. I have no scientific basis to make that claim, but … it sounds good to me.”
And why wouldn’t it? Hauser is the second generation of his family to own and operate Hauser Chocolatier in Westerly, a thriving business that manufactures chocolate and confectionary products on both a retail and wholesale basis, for national and international markets.
In fact, Hauser only started to sell products to the global market in August, after the company acquired Tom and Sally’s Chocolates of Vermont, which sold chocolate goods to such countries as Japan and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Hauser has continued these sales and, while they make up what he said is only a “small amount” of overall business, this is an area with considerable opportunity for growth, he noted.
But that doesn’t mean Hauser Chocolatier hasn’t been growing.
Founded in 1985 by Rudi’s father and mother, Ruedi Hauser Sr. and Lucille, the company began in a small pastry shop in Bethel, Conn., but within five years outgrew that space and had to build itself a new home in Westerly. The new building, which the company occupied in 1990, was constructed as a chocolate-product manufacturing facility, but again it proved too small and, in 2006, was expanded by 5,000 square feet.
At the same time, a retail store was added where customers can purchase Hauser products direct from the factory. “We always did a little bit of retail, out of the front offices, but nothing significant,” Hauser said. “When we were ready to add on to this building, we incorporated that [store] in the plans.”
Also added was what Hauser called a “little museum-type, self-guided tour room, which has an elevated platform so you can look through the glass and actually see the production floor,” he said. “Being a beach town, Westerly sees a lot of summer traffic here and, on days when it’s not so nice outside, we get a lot of traffic” for chocolate-factory tours. At the core of the company’s success, according to Hauser, are the original recipes that his father developed in the 1950s as a young apprentice in his native Switzerland.
In addition, father and son are both award-winning master confectioners and the two have worked together to develop other special concoctions. The business today manufactures 30 different kinds of chocolate truffles and another 30 kinds of candy, most of which contain chocolate, Hauser said, focusing on the “gourmet, high-end of the industry.”
Use of natural ingredients is essential. Rather than use flavoring, the hazelnut truffle is made of actual nuts that have been ground and pureed, for instance, and raspberry treats are made with real berries, Hauser said. The company, however, does not make its own chocolate from scratch.
“In the chocolate industry across the globe today, there are maybe a dozen companies that make the chocolate from bean to bar,” Hauser said. “Most of us buy it.” Hauser gets its chocolate stock from a wholesale manufacturer in Pennsylvania that prepares special blends unique to the local company, such as a white chocolate named for Providence.
Over the years, Hauser Chocolatier has taken several steps to weather the ups and downs of the New England economy, mostly by diversifying its product mix.
Noting that the company’s niche is its production facility, with what Hauser called “a relatively expensive equipment set,” the business decided about 10 years ago to make chocolate products on a wholesale basis for other name brands, although Hauser declined to identify those brands. “Certainly in the last five or six years, [making chocolate for other companies] has become a significant part of our business,” he said.
Also adding to Hauser’s diversity was the purchase of Tom and Sally’s Chocolates this year and the 2005 acquisition of the Chocolate Lace trademark brand. Chocolate Lace is a one-of-a-kind product, developed by a Russian immigrant around 1900, where a special machine drizzles caramel in lacy patterns in small sheets that are then enrobed in chocolate, Hauser explained. •

COMPANY PROFILE
Hauser Chocolatier
OWNER: Rudi C. Hauser Jr.
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Chocolate-product and confections maker
LOCATION: 59 Tom Harvey Road, Westerly
EMPLOYEES: 26
YEAR FOUNDED: 1985
ANNUAL SALES: $1.5 million to
$2.5 million