Peace by Chocolate expands to Halifax with signature store along the waterfront
Posted Mar 3, 2021 03:36:54 PM.
It's been a whirlwind five years for Peace by Chocolate.
The company, which makes artisan chocolates as a way to spread love and peace, launched in 2016 in Antigonish.
The product has garnered worldwide attention and it's a thriving business in the town.
Peace by Chocolate is now expanding and will open a new signature store along Halifax's waterfront in the Queen's Marque this Friday, just in time for Easter.
“It's phenomenal,” said founder and CEO Tareq Hadhad. “We came here from Syria as newcomers, immigrants, refugees, and arrived here with nothing.”
“We started our way in our home kitchen in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in 2016 knowing nothing except we have a table at the farmers' market in Antigonish at that time. We had no idea where the journey could go.”
Hadhad's father had owned a chocolate factory in Damascus.
It was bombed in 2012 and the family soon fled Syria for Lebanon where they spent the next three years in a refugee camp.
Hadhad arrived in Canada in late 2015, and was followed by his siblings and parents a month later.
Sponsored by a group in Antigonish, they settled in the community and soon restarted the family business.
“In the next few months we opened our first chocolate shop in Antigonish with a mini chocolate kitchen … we really have seen thousands of Nova Scotians drive all across the province, even from New Brunswick they were coming by at Christmas time in 2016.”
Sobeys soon started carrying the company's chocolate and even helped it set up a larger production facility so it could meet the increased demand.
“We moved from a 12-foot by 16-foot tool shed beside our house to an almost 20,000 square foot facility at that time in 2017 when it opened,” Hadhad told NEWS 95.7 fill-in host Jordi Morgan. “That became our headquarters.”
“So 2017 and 2018 were really busy for us, building the national market and I would say it just exploded from there.”
Hadhad said 2020 brought a challenging year with the COVID-19, but it also gave the company time to plan for the future.
“We know that the pandemic will not be the first challenge our family has lived and it will not be the last,” he stated. “We have to face it with a mindset that if you are in a position of crisis, you should not feel stuck. And even if you are stuck, it's an opportunity to grow, it's not a setback.”
“So we took the opportunity since the beginning of the pandemic to say we have time now, so let's plan for our Nova Scotian expansion and we started building a store in the city of Halifax.”
He said Haligonians can expect to find their favourite Peace by Chocolate products at the Lower Water St. store, along with 40 new ones.
“Including vegan chocolate, including sugar-free chocolate, including all the things people can dream of in chocolate, plus our new flavours of hot chocolate.”
The store's design will reflect the family's culture, and he hopes customers will appreciate the attention to detail
“You see fountains in the middle of Syrian houses in Damascus, and in the middle of the fountain you find the turquoise colours, the teal colours, the light blue, and that's all about comfort, quality and it gives you peace, so we brought that concept to the heart of Halifax,” Hadhad explained.
“We made a beautiful arch in the middle of the store to reflect our culture, and we have also designed, I think it's the biggest peace sign in the province.”
In addition to the expansion, Hadhad plans to continue being an advocate for immigration and peace, and he's excited to find out where the next five years will take him.
“I really don't know what the next five years might hold, but I'm looking forward to it, whether it's politics, whether it's entrepreneurship, whether it's back in medicine because I have a medical background from Syria, no one knows, but it's all going to be exciting,” he said.
“There's nothing impossible,” he added. “Life is a dream and we are living that dream one day at a time.”
The Queen's Marque location of Peace by Chocolate opens its doors Friday at 9 a.m. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the ribbon cutting ceremony has been put on hold for now.
“Everybody really loves chocolate, whether it's a pandemic or not, and chocolate makes happiness,” Hadhad said.
“We are really excited for this great opportunity to be in downtown Halifax.”
A sneak peek of our new Peace by Chocolate signature store at the Queen's Marque in downtown Halifax. It's getting filled with LOTS of chocolate!
Opening this Friday March 5th at 9 am,
