It all began with a holiday that changed everything.
Clive talking to growers in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
Clive talking to growers in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
It all began with a holiday that changed everything.
When Clive Carroll travelled to the Solomon Islands in 2005, he expected to return home. Instead, he discovered neglected cacao plantations and saw something others didn't.
With agriculture in his DNA from his father's avocado farming background, Clive believed these cacao trees had enormous potential, so he came home from his holiday as the operator of a run down cacao plantation and started from there.
From neglected plantations to thriving communities.
Our Solomon Islands cacao beans
Our Solomon Islands cacao beans
From neglected plantations to thriving communities.
Determined to help revive the local cacao industry, Clive then founded C-Corp, a cacao buying, processing and export business that has now spent more than 20 years working alongside Solomon Islands farming communities.
Two founders. One shared vision.
Glenn & Clive
Glenn & Clive
Two founders. One shared vision.
The next chapter began when Clive employed Glenn Yeatman, a fourth-generation coffee farmer from Zimbabwe who had fled the Mugabe regime with his young family before starting a new life in New Zealand.
Glenn spent the next two years living and working alongside cacao growers in the Solomon Islands while managing the C-Corp plantation.
Together, he and Clive realised these organic fertile soils were something special and they had something truly extraordinary on their hands. The only question was how to share this cacao with the world.
Building Solomons Gold From the Ground Up
Building Solomons Gold From the Ground Up
Glenn made the very first batch of Solomons Gold chocolate in his family kitchen while living in the Solomon Islands. He and Clive knew the idea was too good not to pursue, so Glenn moved his family back to New Zealand and began designing and building our Mount Maunganui chocolate factory from the ground up.
Glenn’s ingenuity still shapes the way we make chocolate today, with much of our equipment designed, adapted or carefully modified by him. What began as a small kitchen experiment has grown into the factory where every Solomons Gold chocolate bar is still crafted today.
Family Owned & Operated
Clive, Sarah, Chanee & Glenn
Clive, Sarah, Chanee & Glenn
Family Owned & Operated
Today, Solomons Gold remains proudly family operated and owned.
Glenn, together with his wife Ange and daughter Chanee, manage every aspect of our Mount Maunganui chocolate factory and New Zealand operations, from crafting every batch of chocolate to overseeing production, quality, day to day operations and sales.
Clive spends much of his time in the Solomon Islands working alongside our growers, employees and overseeing each cacao harvest, while his daughter Sarah, manages our marketing and International sales.
Together, our two families remain involved every step of the journey – from the cacao grown in the Solomon Islands to the chocolate enjoyed by customers around the world.
Every chocolate bar tells a story.
Every chocolate bar tells a story.
Ours started with two people and a simple idea: to make exceptional chocolate while creating opportunities for the people who grow the cacao.
More than twenty years later, it's still about the belief that great chocolate starts at the source.
That's why we put as much care into building long term relationships with our growers as we do into crafting every batch of chocolate.
Explore our multi International award winning chocolate and experience a story that's as remarkable as the chocolate itself.