April 26, 2003, Scharffen Berger Chocolate opened its second store in the newly renovated San Francisco Ferry Building, joined a number of other prestigious artisan food and specialty retail stores in this great location. The opening of the second store was held in the midst of rapid expansion. Scharffen Berger recently raised $ 4 million in its second round of funding, and it has grown on average by 60% over the past five years. As the first new chocolate-making company to open its doors in the United States in the last 50 years, Scharffen Berger achieved unprecedented success in the industry is dominated by a few large producers. Since they first opened shop in 1996, the two founders of the company - John and Robert Scharffenberger Steinberg - gained national attention for its high quality chocolate made with fine artisan European methods. Through its commitment to quality, Scharffen Berger became the media darling and an important player in the burgeoning industry of gourmet chocolate. Maintaining her elaborate reputation for quality, expanding production capacity is likely to be a key issue for the company as it continues to grow. "Hide
by Michael T. Hannan, Greta Hsu Source: Stanford Graduate School of Business 18 pages. Publication Date: April 20, 2004. Prod. #: OB46-PDF-ENG
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