Learnings from Pastry Connection: “Adapting Brands to the Current Situation,” with Arnaud Monmarché, Quico Sosa, and Clementine Alzial

In the context that we are currently living in, there is room for learning and improving the strengths that allow us to keep moving forward. Last Saturday, we had the opportunity to participate in the magistral República del Cacao CEO conference, including Arnaud Monmarché, Valrhona, Clémentine Alzial, and Quico Sosa within Pastry Connection, in which iniciatives to tackle the current crisis were discussed.

In response to the new situation, the connection among brands with their different groups of interest as an important factor of business management, is being reinvented at a rapid pace. The relationship is based in trust, which begins with understanding commercial activity as a value generator, applying long-term thinking, as Arnaud Monmarché emphasized.

Multiple brands are innovating to continue generating value, responding to their compromise with their counterparts. The compromise with the craftsmen and clients supports part of the response being given. For example, República del Cacao is improving their delivery services to continue serving their clients, and Valhrona is supporting craftsmen. Emphasizing the importance of the A-mAp platform allows clients to locate in a map, according to their own location, nearby craftsmen that continue working, improving the connection between the client and the craftsmen.

Co-responsibility with the supply chain is another key aspect of the brands’ response to the current situation. One of the strengths of República del Cacao is the link with the communities that provide raw material, which has maintained the purchase of such ingredients and is working towards creating connections among the chefs and producers through the program Chef to Farm.

Brands are strongly involved with their colaborators, and their health and security; keeping in mind the current situation and the construction of the new normal.

Chocolate supports the celebration. Quico Sosa, president of Sosa, remakrs the way that, as a result of the virus COVID-19, the private context and home life have gained greater protagonism versus the public context, such as restaurants.

It may seem that this situation is distancing us from one another, but instead, it is strenghtening connections. The surface may change, but the content, the essence, the need to share experiences and moments, remain. This connection is happening within families, as they spend time together baking deserts at home; among the communication between chefs and clients through social media; and finally from the brands with each one of these characters, as the three CEO emphasized.

The brands’ purpose is manifested through experiencing these strenghtened connections, allowed through the brands’ response through the support towards its value chain.

 Pablo del Arco Fernández, Sustainability Manager for Valora Consulting