Affinity Beverage Group has completed its acquisition of Undone Chocolate.
Undone Chocolate, headquartered in Washington, DC, is the owner of the Undone Chocolate brand of premium 100% organic certified vegan chocolate bars, cacao tea and drinking chocolate. Undone, founded in 2014, was DC's first craft chocolate maker.
The cacao and other ingredients used in the product is 100% Organic, Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy Free and directly sourced and handcrafted from scratch with no added fats or emulsifiers.
Undone Chocolate is distributed to local and national retailers including Whole Foods Market, Mom's Organic Market, Yes Market as well as numerous outlets including hotels, restaurants and specialty stores.
Undone has recently added several new customers, including national specialty retailers Williams-Sonoma and Loli & Pop, and a new distribution partner in the United Kingdom.
In anticipation of the acquisition, Undone has spent the past several months developing new products including a mini-bar concept that is perfect for mainstream grocery, drug stores and the hospitality channel which is an area of emphasis for Affinity Beverage Group and its other wholly Owned subsidiary, Village Tea Company.
Undone Founder, Adam Kavalier will remain with the Company as a managing member and will continue to work with the Company through an agreed upon transition period and into the foreseeable future as deemed necessary.
Kavalier said: "We have worked extremely hard over the past few years to create our concept, develop a product and establish a regional brand that could potentially grow into a household name in the rapidly expanding organic chocolate market. Although we have achieved some modest success in a very short period of time, we feel that Affinity Beverage Group has the right platform and resources to take our vision to the next level.
Affinity Beverage and Undone Chocolate have a shared vision for the current and future product line; including integration into existing channels of distribution (Sodexo and others), cross promotional opportunities with other portfolio brands (Village Tea Company/Cacao Tea and Hot Chocolate), new product development (CBD/ Hemp infused Chocolate Bars) and private label (retailers and hospitality).
Janon Costley, CEO of Affinity, said: "Undone has done a tremendous job of developing a fantastic socially responsible brand that we feel fits squarely into our health and wellness platform. This partnership gives us an opportunity to add a synergistic product line that can be easily integrated into our existing platform while adding value not only to our bottom line but potentially to all of our existing portfolio products.”
According to the latest research, the global chocolate market is growing by 5% annually with increasing popularity of dark artisanal chocolate. The Artisanal chocolate market is outpacing mainstream chocolate, growing at 8.4%, with the overall organic market growing by 20%. The US craft chocolate market alone is over a $100M annually.
