“My motto has always been: dream it, believe it, achieve it”

In Fitzgerald Power’s interview series, we’re speaking to people, with different perspectives, who feel they can offer more to the workplace – from the water cooler all the way up to C-Suite.

Gráinne Mullins, the pastry chef-turned-entrepreneur who made her name at Ox Belfast, CLIFF and the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, wants to open a chocolate factory. “That’s the plan,” she smiles via Zoom from her office in Galway. When I ask if she wants to become a sort of Willy Wonka-type for the West, she replies a hearty “absolutely.” Mullins, who is self-taught, took home the prestigious Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year back in 2019, a stepping stone that has seen previous winners like Mark Moriarty and Neven Maguire forge full careers from their honed skillset. It was around that time that Mullins first started hand-painting chocolate Easter Eggs as a hobby, gifting them to friends and family in the later months of the year. When photographs of the products went out online, dozens began to request similar products for a fee. “I couldn’t believe the interest,” she says now. “As soon as people saw what I was making, the orders just started coming in. It just got me thinking: is there something in this?”

She officially kickstarted Grá Chocolates in July 2020, crafting together packaging, products – hand-painted chocolates and hot chocolate blends – and an ordering system from her parent’s shed in Kilchreest, County Galway. Created in small batches, each Grá chocolate takes three days to create; moulds are hand-polished before adding a colourful, hand-painted decoration, and each filling is a singular, signature recipe. While very little has changed about her business model – an emphasis on quality, home-grown flavours and taste; “I’m so focused on the fillings,” – elements of the business have changed around her; Mullins now rents a production unit to keep up with demand; her products are now not just available online, but in Brown Thomas and several Irish airports, including Dublin; and she employs a team of eighteen around the country. “I was always pushing for our product to be stocked in certain places from day one, just trying to grow it as much as I possibly can,” she says. “And there were a few places that I knew we wanted to be stocked in. Thankfully they reached out to us before we even had to reach out to them. And it’s just continued to grow from there.”

According to figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, it’s never been a better time for female-led businesses. In 2012, just 8% of high-potential start-ups were female-led, in 2022, that number rose to 37%. Female-led businesses continue to be a driving force for economic growth and development, and it’s understood that women are turning to entrepreneurship at higher rates than ever before as they recognise the myriad benefits that disproportionately affect women; greater financial stability, flexibility, and opportunities for professional growth. Despite this, persistent, systemic challenges continue to hinder women’s growth, including less access to capital, technical assistance and a struggle to be taken seriously. For Mullins, whose industry is largely male-dominated, the juice is worth the squeeze. “We employ both men and women, but it’s actually way more women,” she says. “That’s probably down to the nature of the business of it being chocolate and quite female-focused. But yeah, after working in kitchens in a male-dominated industry, you learn to just be yourself and to stand up for yourself. I, thankfully, haven’t had any issues with anything like that. But I also don’t dwell on anything. I think focusing on your own work rather than anyone else’s is key to getting where you want to go.”

SMEs represent 68.4% of all Irish businesses. And while they produce some 34.5% of Ireland’s Gross Value Added (GVA), more than two-thirds of Irish SMEs believe they may have to shut down next year due to a challenging market. “It is a challenging time,” she says. “There’s no doubt about it. Rising costs affect us all, and that’s why I’m looking to build my own chocolate factory and have my own control over space – so you’re not so reliant rent price increases and ingredient costs . So yeah, that’s across the board. Everyone’s having those issues, and there’s not really much you can do about it, unfortunately. For us, in particular, chocolate is also going through a crisis. There’s a chocolate shortage across the world and prices are increasing all the time.. They’ll probably continue to be high over the next year. And, to be honest, I can’t ever see them coming back down either, nobody ever brings down their prices! So I’m sure, forevermore, chocolates are more of a luxury product for the world.” When it comes to overcoming these challenges, Mullins tends to look inward for guidance. “You use your past experiences, and try to make a decision as quickly as possible,” she says. “A lot about being a business owner is being able to quickly make decisions and not to stall on things. So that’s really, really important.”

A quick decision Mullins recently made is to launch a fundraising campaign with the hopes of constructing Galway’s first, community-funded chocolate factory. Her vision sees the creation of a food destination in an as-of-yet-unknown location in the West of Ireland, that will cater to groups of all ages, teach them about chocolate, and stimulate the local economy. In it, she hopes to have a visitor centre, a workshop for chocolate making, and a space where she can meet her customers face to face. “It originally started as a way to combat rising costs,” she says. “And to kind of take matters back into our own hands. So we started pushing as much as we possibly could about the idea and over the last few weeks, it’s been really special. We’re coming to the end of the campaign now, and we’re hoping to raise as much as possible.” The team – aptly named Team Grá to reference Mullins’ nickname, as well as the world for ‘love,’ as Gaeilge – has already surpassed their original goal. “We had an original target of €50,000 and we’ve already reached that. So everything else above that is just going to be a bonus.” In the meantime, work continues behind the scenes at Grá Chocolates. “We’re always working on new flavours,” she says. “The next step for us is Christmas, which is very exciting. At the moment, we’re trying to be as innovative as we possibly can.”

For Mullins, whose heart and soul are baked into the fabric of Grá Chocolates, the future is lined with opportunities. “The dream is just to keep growing,” she says. “And to continue to make the best chocolates that we possibly can, and send them out into the world.” For those looking to start a business – say, out of their parents’ shed – but have always been too afraid to consider the consequences, she says one thing. “My motto has always been: dream it, believe it, achieve it. So just continue dreaming and believing in yourself and you can achieve anything.”

For more information on Gráinne, Grá Chocolates or the Kickstarter fundraising campaign, check out her Instagram here.