Haigh's Chocolates' third Sydney store represents an interesting departure from the 100-year-old playbook.

We’d forgive you for not knowing that Haigh’s Chocolates has a 50-year-old store in Melbourne. What’s more they have as many stores in Melbourne as they do in Adelaide (six).

The intergenerational, 100-year-old company has quietly been building a successful national retail footprint all the while we, here at CityMag, thought Adelaide were the only ones eating the best chocolate in the world.  

“We definitely have a strategy when it comes to growth,” says Haigh’s Chocolates’ executive team member and Marketing Manager Fiona Krawczyk.

“The company doesn’t seek growth for growth’s sake, it has to be sustainable,” she says.

Not only a strategy for growth but Haigh’s operate a kind of historical dot-point rule book, full of criteria that must be met in order for the brand to consider setting up shop.

Haigh’s 15th store however, is a departure of sorts from this age-old playbook.

Most readers will think lovingly of the Haigh’s Mecca at the corner of King William Street and Rundle Mall when imagining the perfect Haigh’s store. The shop is everything you know and love about the Haigh’s brand, replete with white-gloved attendants offering you a sample, post purchase.

This newest Haigh’s store is in Chatswood Chase and all the hallmarks of a good Haigh’s experience are still there.

What’s interesting about the Chatswood Chase store though is it reveals the brand’s true market position.

“You don’t find Haigh’s in amongst the food vendors,” says Fiona.

“In Chatswood Chase, we’re on the ground floor next to high profile tenants like R.M. Williams and Country Road – we’re much more at home on the fashion level than the food level as a boutique chocolatier,” she says.

And while retail competes with clicks online Haigh’s is growing their vertically-integrated business with all the pace and poise you’d expect.

“Ultimately,” says Fiona, “we have to match our manufacturing with supply. The hands-on nature of our production is part of what people pay for and it’s so important to Haigh’s that our customers get a sense of the care we put into our chocolate each and every time they visit a store.”

Not only is a new store interstate great for taking Adelaide’s brand abroad, it could also mean more jobs back here in the literal chocolate factory. It may not be advanced manufacturing but it’s infinitely more delicious.