Brexit has been huge challenge: Scottish chocolate fountain firm boss

The Herald Scotland

09-05-2025

David Archer
Job title
Managing director/owner
What is your business called?
Sephra is our main parent business, which operates in both the UK and the United States, and we also operate a sub-business under this umbrella called CFW. Additionally, we have a popcorn business called Sephra Popcorn.
Where is it based?
Our UK business is based in Kirkcaldy in Fife, with our office in the States based at Throop in Pennsylvania.
What does it produce/do?
We manufacture and distribute dessert-making, patisserie and bakery equipment, ingredients and confectionery for the food service and retail industry.
To whom does it sell?
Mostly to food service operators and distributors here and in the States, but also to major retailers (Asda and Morrisons stock Sephra Popcorn, and it is also found in cinema and theatre cafés and shops). We also sell equipment and products direct to consumers keen on baking and creating desserts and chocolates.
What is its turnover?
We estimate turnover in 2025 of £14m in the UK and $4m in the US.
How many employees?
33 between the UK and US locations.
What attracted you to your current role?
I started the business so it was more of an entrepreneurial journey. To give you a bit of background, in 2003 Sephra, a US-based company, introduced groundbreaking innovations in chocolate fountains.
Here in Europe, I started renting them out, modifying and improving the product as I went along as I recognised it had huge potential.
In 2008, I took the step of forging a partnership with Sephra in the US, becoming a distributor and heralding the birth of Sephra Europe.
We evolved from merely distributing the chocolate fountains to offering a huge range of delectable dessert products and in 2019 I acquired the brand from the original Sephra, allowing for Sephra Europe to solidify its status as a trailblazer in the marketplace.
What were you doing before?
I started off working in a musical instrument retailer then moved into field sales within the IT industry, as well as being a semi-pro musician.
What do you least enjoy?
Currently, the volatile cocoa market. Firstly, regarding the cocoa market, prices have more than quadrupled since 2022, due to a mix of extreme heat, crop disease and drought in the cocoa-producing West African countries of Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire, which account for 60 per cent of the world's cocoa crops. Levels are currently at their lowest for 46 years.
Extreme weather may cause more problems this year, and it is estimated prices will remain elevated in the short term but then ease by around 13 per cent later this year and by 2 per cent next year.
What do you consider to be the main successes of the business?
Our continuous innovation, together with the diversification of our product range and sales channels.
I am extremely proud this company I started pretty much in my garden shed, tinkering about with chocolate fountains, is now in collaboration and partnership with some of the biggest food names in the business, such as Nutella, Callebaut, Nestle and Dawn Foods, whose products can be found on our websites.
Last year we announced an exciting landmark partnership with Ferrero which saw us exclusively bring innovative heated Nutella dispensers to the UK and Irish marketplace – to our customers running bakeries, hotels, coffee shops, and dessert parlours.
This product has set us up perfectly to support these operators, with the machines, and the cartridges, available through our website with next day delivery to mainland UK.
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What are your ambitions for the firm?
To continue to grow the company both in Scotland and the US. We want to be the number one name in our sector. We've just had our key trade show season, which gives us a fantastic platform to directly get in front of our potential customers – we have attended shows such as The Artisan Ice Cream Show and ScotHot.
We've been able to demonstrate signature products such as the heated Nutella dispenser.
What are the challenges facing the sector and market, and what could be done to overcome or address these?
Being in the food sector, Brexit has been a huge challenge for us, and setting up a European subsidiary may be the solution to regain the business we have lost from our European customers.
The volatile cocoa market has caused significant increases in the cost of chocolate. And more latterly the tariff agenda by Donald Trump is causing us pain in our US business.
What single thing would most help?
A crystal ball! Seriously, though, a stabilisation of cocoa prices would be a great start.
What is the most valuable lesson you have learned?
The only constant is change. Spreading risk and making sure you don't have all your eggs in one basket.
What was your best moment?
Landing our first popcorn deal with Asda was a very high moment, which has proven to be a launchpad for our now well-established popcorn tub retail business. I think my other best moments have been making great recruitment choices by seeing the potential in people.
What has been your most challenging moment in life or business?
I think continuing to run the business through a period of ill health was the most challenging from a personal point of view. Luckily having a great team around me and supportive family made this possible.
How do you relax?
I still love to perform in my band and find this the best form of escapism. I also enjoy playing golf and football and watching Raith Rovers, although that is seldom relaxing.
What phrase or quotation has inspired you the most?
One swallow doesn't make a summer.
What is the best book (fiction or non-fiction) you have ever read? Why is it the best?
I don't read enough but the last book I read was The Saboteur of Auschwitz. I found it very inspirational and emotional as it was almost a true depiction of my grandfather's experience of being a prisoner of war in Auschwitz in the Second World War.
Where do you find yourself most at ease?
Entertaining with friends and family in my own home.
If you weren't in your current role, what job would you most fancy?
Being a professional musician or sportsman.
What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?
Luckily, I have travelled extensively with the business and for pleasure, but I think my favourite really is the north west coast of Scotland as it reminds me of family holidays as a child and I find the beauty breathtaking. Although a Caribbean cruise does come a close second!