At 26 years old, Lluc Crusellas won the 2022 World Chocolate Masters and was crowned the best master chocolatier in the world, being the youngest candidate to win the title and the first Spaniard. Far from fame going to his head, Crusellas explains that he has worked very hard this last year to take advantage of the momentum of the award to found his own brand of pastry products. “It has been a hectic year, in which I have traveled all over the world,” says the master chocolatier. Crusellas has created the new brand, together with the Vic pastry shop where he worked, El Carme Pastisseria, owned by the PaVic group. In this way, he has gone from employee to partner, all thanks to an award to which he assures he entered “with the desire to learn and in no way expected to win.”
The entrepreneur and PaVic have named the new brand Eukarya, a curious name that evokes “eukaryotic cells, which form the cocoa bean,” explains Crusellas. The firm was presented on November 14 and, on the 22nd of that same month, they opened their first store in Vic, although Eukarya products are also available until December 21st in a pop-up at the Yurban Trafalgar hotel in Barcelona. . It is no coincidence that the launch was in November, just before the Christmas campaign, which accounts for up to 45% of the annual turnover of this type of business. To seasonally adjust the activity, the co-founder plans to expand the brand outside the European Union next year.
Sweet lovers will find in Eukarya 45 product references that, as could not be otherwise, have chocolate as their main ingredient. These are nougats, chocolate bars and sweets with nuts, which can also be purchased through the firm's online store. On the other hand, the entrepreneur advances that they are also reaching agreements with large chains of gourmet product stores, such as Casa Ametller or Tea Shop.
The company, which directly employs eight people, has involved an initial investment of one million euros, which includes the construction of a 700 m² warehouse, which is adjacent to the Vic store.
