How sweet it is:
Hawaii may get
chocolate factory

A Honolulu company and its
Italian partner are looking for
a site in the islands

Star-Bulletin staff

Conjuring up images of "Willy Wonka," a Honolulu company says it wants Hawaii to be the home of the first new U.S. chocolate factory since World War II.

Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate Co. said yesterday it plans to build a factory that will include a visitor education and tour center. The company is looking for a site for the factory, which would be built in partnership with the Italian chocolate manufacturer Vitali.

"The factory will be a showcase for the finest chocolate-making equipment in the world," James Walsh, chairman and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Vintage, said in a statement. "It will be the first new full-scale chocolate production facility built in the United States since World War II."

The company has looked for a site in the Kakaako or downtown-to-Ala Moana areas, said Kristine Simonds, the company's operations manager. She did not have any more details on the size of the factory or how many jobs would be created.

"We're thinking of doing something like the Willy Wonka chocolate factory," Simonds said. In "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," a 1971 movie starring Gene Wilder, children were attracted to the animated way the chocolate was produced.

Walsh was traveling and unavailable for more details.

The Honolulu-based company now sends its cacao tree harvest from Hawaii to a factory in California where the chocolate is made.

The company started 12 years ago in Hawaii and is now publicly traded over the counter.

It produces four different kinds of chocolate on the Big Island.