14 Sweet Years Of GNAW Chocolate
GNAW Chocolate celebrates it's 14th birthday today! To mark the occasion, we sat down with the husband-and-wife duo behind the brand, Matt and Teri Legon, for a behind-the-scenes look at life as chocolate company founders.
The idea? One question for every year of GNAW’s journey—asked to both founders.
This revealed some surprisingly different perspectives along the way. So sit back, grab a chocolate bar, and join us for a deep dive into the last 14 years of GNAW chocolate!
1.) What's the first word that comes to mind when you think about the last 14 years?
Teri - "Challenging."
Matt - "Journey."
2.) What was the first chocolate product you launched?
Matt - "A range of chocolate bars. I think Peanut Butter [and] Rocky Road was really popular. We did a Go Bananas bar, a Love Bar with jelly hearts on it, and from memory, I think we launched four flavours of Hot Chocolate Shots as well. So we launched with shots and bars. I think we had about ten bars in total. One of them was the Croc Bar, which was just GNAW chocolate with jelly crocodiles on it—because we were quite a fun, quirky brand. And actually, it worked. Rocky Road was always my favourite. Loved it."
Teri - "We didn't launch with just one because Matt and I don’t do things like normal people. I think we had a range of— it must have been about 26 bars— that we launched on the first day. And that included things like a Love Bar, which had jellies on it, crystallized ginger, and I think a chilli and lime bar. Yeah. Lavender too."
3.) What's one thing about running a chocolate business that might surprise people?
Teri - "We don’t eat chocolate all day! I think people imagine us standing in front of machines, constantly sampling chocolate."
Matt - "That I’m not fat. Oops—can I say that?"
4.) What's your favourite GNAW chocolate bar?
Matt - "For me, Popcorn & Peanut. But if I had to pick another, Honeycomb & Caramel. Oh, and Seville Orange & Milk Chocolate—wow!"
Teri - "Mine is no longer listed— it was raspberry chilli in milk chocolate. That’s a delisted product now. I like bold flavours, so chilli and lime was another one of my favourites. That was a really good one too."
5.) What was the weirdest bar you ever made?
Matt- "We tested a Peanut Butter and Jelly bar once because someone requested it. We used to do a lavender bar. That was a fun one. And it actually had real Norfolk lavender pieces in it. It was love or hate. Most people hated it. As you were chewing it, it reminded you of your grandma. It was lavender from Heacham in Norfolk and it genuinely had pieces in the bar. Some people loved it. Other people found it repulsive. Strangely, that's the one bar we get the most requests to rerun."
Teri - "We ran a competition online a few years ago asking for flavour ideas, and we got some really random ones. Off the top of my head, we had suggestions like wasabi, baked beans… Someone also requested bacon and maple as a flavour, which is actually quite popular in the States and Canada."
6.) What's been the proudest moment of your journey so far?
Teri - "I think it was when we moved into this factory [Whiffler Road.] This is our third factory, but it really felt like we were growing up. When we made the decision to move here, install solar panels, and truly define what we stood for as a company — it felt like a major step forward. Up until then, we hadn’t thought about that in great depth. It felt like we had moved through our childhood and teenage years and suddenly become adults. We’ve been here for three years now, and while the massive open space was daunting at first, we’ve really grown into it and made it our own."
Matt - "Winning the Norfolk Chamber Small Business of the Year award—both regional and national. We went to the London awards and won, which was a shock because we beat around 700 businesses. That was a moment where I thought 'this is all worth it.'"
7.) How do you come up with new chocolate flavours? What's the process?
Matt - "Testing, testing, testing. You have all these great ideas of what’s going to work, and they never do. It’s the ones where you think, can we make this exceptional? that end up working. Take Seville Orange—so simple, but just so smooth. You need a broad mindset. Raspberry Mojito, for example—the way the mint kicks in after the raspberry just works. Our motto has always been: you should be able to taste the chocolate. Our chocolate is wonderful, so you should be able to taste the chocolate. It should never be so overpowering where you can't tell what you're eating."
Teri - "Everyone in the company has input— people throw ideas at us, and we test different concepts. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. We also look at trends, take inspiration from restaurants and food markets, and even get ideas while travelling. All of these things help us decide how to do something different from other brands."
8.) If you weren't making chocolate, what would you be doing?
Matt - "Well, I used to be an investment banker, so probably something in the financial sector. I was a financial analyst in London before chocolate. I’m a commercial numbers person at heart—that’s my background, and I still love that side of the business."
Teri - "I’d be a midwife. I had actually started my training, but then I was called back into the business. I was told, “I need you to come back.” So I did— temporarily— and then never left. It's a very different kind of work."
9.) What's the biggest lesson you've learned as a founder?
Teri - "To expect the unexpected. It's not easy being an entrepreneur— it’s never straightforward. There are peaks and troughs. As long as you have the ability to take stock of what's happened, assess the situation, and then deal with whatever comes your way, you’ll be fine. Being able to pivot and adapt is a crucial skill in business rather than being too slow to act on a mistake or problem."
Matt - "Every day is different. It' up and down like a yo-yo. I always used to hear that, and it's so true. Day one is great. Day two is awful. Day three is fantastic. And day four it's all finished, and all gone down the pan. And I think that's the reality of running a business. We're a family, we love our team, and we work tirelessly for our team and for the company. But things can be so turbulent and that's normal for a small businesses. But we've survived for 14 years, and we've grown. And actually, I sit here today and I think, we support local farmers in Colombia. We have an energy efficient and sustainable factory. We've got a great team of people that love what they do. And I'm proud of that. And I think that's the end goal and the end reward for 14 years of difficulty. Any founder will tell you it's never easy. It's much harder than people think."
10.) What's one thing you wish you’d known when you started?
Matt - "How hard it would be. It’s tough, and every day brings something new. But there are also more opportunities out there than people think. You need to have fun doing it. I come to work, and I enjoy what I do. There's always fun if you can find it. I think that's key. I like to have a laugh. I'm serious in my job, in what we're doing, but you can't take yourself too seriously in business. Be real, be genuine, but if you can't laugh about it, it's really boring."
Teri - "I come back to the word 'challenging.' Being an entrepreneur is incredibly hard. I don’t think you fully realise it until you do it yourself— the amount of work that goes into it, the sacrifices you have to make. So many sacrifices— financial, emotional. Had we known that, we might have done some things differently.
I don’t want to get too political, but when people say that entrepreneurs aren’t real working people, it’s quite offensive. We work unbelievable hours, make financial sacrifices to ensure that everyone else gets paid and doesn’t have to worry about their mortgage or rent. It’s a lot of pressure, and as a business owner, you never fully switch off. Until you have your own business, you can’t truly understand the weight of that responsibility. "
11.) What's the biggest challenge facing the chocolate industry today?
Teri - "Definitely the cocoa market. It's really tough right now, and there’s no way around it. You have to be able to pivot and reassess your business constantly to stay afloat. Unfortunately, smaller producers who can’t sustain the rising costs of raw ingredients are being forced out of business. We’re in a strong position and are absorbing as much of the cost as possible so that consumers can still enjoy our products. But the entire industry is feeling the impact of what’s happening in the stock market."
Matt - "Cocoa prices. Cocoa prices are just extreme. So, currently they are 400% higher than normal. It's been like this now for 18 months. It's becoming the new norm, and it's challenging for everybody. Because of that, obviously, costs are going up and prices are going up. But there's nothing we can do about it. Our hands are tied. And so, all we can do is continue to be the best at what we do. Make amazing products that taste fantastic, that customers want, and that they believe in us. That they believe that we are genuinely doing good things for the planet. We're very straight down the line. I think it's a real challenge for the sector right now. And we are doing the best that we can in a very difficult situation."
12.) Has there ever been a product idea that totally flopped?
Matt - "We launched chocolate cards. Basically, two chocolate bars in a birthday card. That was a total flop. We thought that would be really successful, but it just didn't go anywhere."
Teri - "I don’t think we’ve had anything that was a complete disaster from day one. But we’ve launched some things that didn’t perform as well as expected. For example, we had a product called Chompers— little chocolate clusters with fruit pieces, almost like an apple pie. There was a blueberry flavour and an orange and cashew flavour. They were really nice, but they never really took off. We had them for about two years before we delisted them. But failure is part of business. Sometimes you take a punt on something, and it just doesn’t work."
13.) What’s next for the company? Any exciting plans you can tease?
Teri - "Has it been announced that we’ve switched to 40% Colombian chocolate? We now have our own private blend, which has been phased in over the last couple of months. It’s called 'Teri’s Recipe', and no other chocolate manufacturer will have that blend."
Matt - "New product development is always key. We've got some new products in the concept stage that are, for me, just hilariously brilliant. I'm looking forward to seeing them launch. I'm especially excited about a new concept for Birthdays. I can't say much more at this point. I always think that if it makes me laugh, then we've done the right thing. Chocolate is meant to be fun. When you eat chocolate, you don't eat it with a frown. We're all about making people happy."
14.) In one sentence, what does chocolate mean to you?
Matt - "Chocolate is a pleasure—it’s meant to make you smile."
Teri - "Chocolate is my life— the drive and pleasure I get from developing new cocoa blends and flavours, or experimenting with state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly packaging for NPD, is in my bones now."
