Moving to Wanaka from Christchurch was a spur of the moment decision for Graham Berry and his family.

"We thought of it one Friday night, and within three weeks we were here. It could have been even quicker but we wanted to wait until after [daughter] Bella’s birthday.”

Graham is the managing director of BellaBerry Chocolate Works, named after his daughter - although it wasn’t until after Bella’s name was chosen for the brand that Graham joined the company.

"A friend of mine started it. He needed to change the name and at the same time I’d just sent him a video of my daughter Bella for her Board of Trustees rep position at MAC, and the video was really funny. He thought it was so good he wanted to call the chocolate BellaBerry Chocolate.”

It was about a year later that Graham and his friend, Giles Barker, decided to merge their two companies. Graham has a degree in chemistry and had been making natural health products for the last twenty years under the name Botanica.

It was around the time that Graham joined BellaBerry Chocolate Works that the business - which sells boutique chocolate in a range of unique and often humorous packaging - started to really take off. The company now has manufacturing in America, Europe and Australia and has warehousing and businesses in Singapore, Ireland, America, Australia and New Zealand. Head office is in Wanaka, with a team of six working out of an office attached to Graham’s house, which he shares with his wife Sarah and daughters Freya and Ellie, who are 11 and 8. Bella has left home now, having completed school last year.

Since taking on the role at BellaBerry, Graham said he’s never been so busy. "I’m absolutely extending myself,” he said. Despite the busyness, he’s loving the challenge of running BellaBerry.

"It’s much more fun than selling products for head lice”. (One of Botanica’s top-selling products is called Mr Nits, a single application headlice treatment.)

Companies often approach BellaBerry to design a chocolate packaging for a special occasion. Paper Plus Wanaka had a design made for its 30th anniversary recently, and from there Random House got in touch to have chocolate designed for them. Additionally, retailers around the world stock the product, including Typo, who sell the chocolate globally.

Graham said people are often surprised by the quality of the chocolate. "People expect it to be not very good chocolate, but it’s really good. There’s an expectation gap there.”

The company is currently working on a range of vegan and sugar-free chocolate, and even a paleo chocolate. They also plan to diversify with a range of different types of gifts being created.

Graham particularly enjoys the collaborative team approach with BellaBerry, having worked solo on Botanica in the past. "Change is good. I think it’s good for you to do something completely different.”

Despite being the managing director of a global company, Graham says running BellaBerry Chocolate Works from Wanaka isn’t a problem. "Everything is on email nowadays. Working from here is easy.”

PHOTO: Wanaka App