About us and our Dairy Free Chocolate
Fabulous Freefrom Factory is a family owned free from and vegan chocolate company, driven by a passion for creating the best tasting vegan chocolate and dairy free fudge.
Long before the current vegan and plant based diet trend exploded, husband and wife team Joseph and Deborah sought to create an ethical chocolate brand focused on being dairy free and gluten free. Both felt strongly that lactose intolerants, vegan and vegetarian customers' should have the same great taste and quality treats available to them.
Both left their successful careers; Joseph as Director of Buying for supermarket giant Waitrose and Deborah as a food assortments creator for high-end food retailers. And the rest is history!
Meet the team
Joseph
Joseph was Director of buying for supermarket giant Waitrose where he was responsible for the introduction of the now highly successful Cooks Ingredients, Organics and Free From ranges and the launch Waitrose Wines Direct.
Joseph deals with all Fabulous Freefrom Factories Sales, Marketing and Business Management.
Deborah
Before launching the Fabulous Freefrom Factory, Deborah ran a company for many years creating food assortments for world renowned companies; including Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Liberty, Debenhams, Laura Ashley, British Airways and many more.
Deborah is an innovative thinking foodie and her desire to create an ethical Dairy Free brand led to the launch of Fabulous Freefrom Factory.
Calum
Calum is our Business Manager. He takes care of all the day-to-day company activities from New Product Development to Sales and beyond.
Vegan Chocolate
Joseph and Deborah wanted to develop something unique in the Free From sector. At the time a very limited assortment of vegan sweets and dairy free chocolate bars dominated the Free From aisles. Some were “milk” chocolate alternative, although the vast majority were raw, dark chocolate and naturally didn’t contain milk products. This didn’t hit the spot for the majority of milk chocolate lovers out there!
What Joseph and Deborah couldn’t understand was why if there were dairy free “milk” chocolate alternatives, the only option was a chocolate bar. Where was the diversity of product available? The answer was simple; producing a solid chocolate, or dairy free chocolate bar is a fairly simple process. Covering, coating, enrobing or panning is not!
Set on a course to “coat something” Joseph and Deborah looked into how this could be achieved. Panning is the process of engrossing, or finishing round products with chocolate, or sugar. Carried out by artisans, panning is a dying art that can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. It is all about watching, hearing and feeling the products (with clean hands!!).
When they first started the Fabulous Freefrom Factory Joseph and Deborah were making batches of 60kg at a time (the minimum quantity for 1 drum) and hand packing.
Forward thinking buyers within a handful of Retailers and Independents were quick to recognise how unique our products are and started trialling in a handful of stores. The Fabulous Freefrom Factory is now in most high-street retailers and a number of independent health stores. Our range includes vegan chocolate covered raisins, vegan chocolate covered peanuts, vegan coconut ice and a range of dairy free fudge.