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Laurent Le Daniel shows innovation with a gourmet and environmentally friendly box of chocolates.

10 October 2022
Laurent Le Daniel has been a Relais Desserts member since 2004. He also won the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France Pâtissier in 1997 and has been President of the Confédération Nationale des Artisans Pâtissiers Chocolatiers Glaciers Confiser Caterers since 2021.

Based in Rennes since 1998, his company has grown from 1 to 5 shops and now has 60 employees.

Keen on environmental matters, he had been looking for a way to reduce the use of plastic in his packaging, and in particular the interior elements of the chocolate boxes.

When working on this problem he came up with a brilliant idea. He had his team design packaging made of chocolate! An innovative idea indeed but not been easy to implement. It took numerous tests before arriving at the final design of a packaging which was sufficiently fine to add value to the chocolate sweets, but at the same time still able to hold them in place without being too fragile for transport and handling.

This was a real challenge for the team of chocolate makers of Maison Le Daniel. They rose brilliantly took to the challenge and in just a few months they had developed 5 sizes of chocolate packaging for the 5 sizes of chocolate boxes.

Laurent and the chocolate team

Although this project required a few adaptations and a slight modification of the number of sweets per box, customers were satisfied and received this innovation very positively.

The new boxes were released in the summer of 2021, so there is enough time to look back and take stock. Customers welcomed both the environmental approach and the gourmet benefit of having even more chocolate to taste. This is a success which is reflected in sales figures. Sales of these boxes have increased significantly compared to previous boxes.

Parallel to this work on the removal of plastic packaging,  Laurent also wanted to buy his boxes from a local cardboard manufacturer, thus reducing the carbon impact of transporting the boxes to his chocolate factory. He chose to work with Thibault Bergeron, a supplier renowned for the quality of its products and Relais Desserts partner. Thibault Bergeron is located in Muzillac, Morbihan.

This double action reduced the ecological footprint of its packaging even further. At the same time they continue to offer a product that is just as gourmet, without a significant increase in the selling price to the consumer.

An inspiring initiative that we are happy to share with you.

Marie Loones for relais Desserts

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