Sali and Byron Bay chocolatier Emica Penklis are rewriting the cacao rulebook and facing one of the sweetest problems a business can have: organic demand outstripping supply.
Wellness mogul Radek Sali, the brand guru who transformed Swisse Wellness into a $2.1 billion empire before selling it in 2015, is now facing a new set of challenges. His purpose-driven investment firm, Light Warrior, took a stake in cult Aussie chocolate brand Loco Love eight months ago.
The Byron Bay-based ‘artisan chocolatier’ founded by Emica Penklis has become so popular that it can’t keep up with customer requests.
“This business is rare,” Sali told the audience at a Forbes Club event held at the Imperial Hotel on the Gold Coast. “We cannot keep up with demand, and supply is short 23 per cent.”
Loco Love’s annual revenue exceeded $12 million last year, up from $8.8 million in 2024. A new manufacturing facility is in the works, Sali says, which will allow the company to increase production, but that could be 18 months away.
“Loco Love is going through growing pains, as we are trying to manufacture out of a plant that is not designed to make what it is making. We have Chinese and Indian businesses chasing us and we’re working on the process to meet increased demand,” says Sali.
Expanding overseas to service international demand is the ideal scenario, Sali says, rather than having to create demand in a foreign market. ‘Flowing’ toward demand is a lesson he learned when growing Swisse into China and the US.
“When the energy is going in the right area, chase that down. Don’t push up against where you think you should be, go where the flow is. At Swisse, the aspiration to be in the US costly $70 million bucks and almost the business, as a result of thinking the US is where we needed to be.”
Loco Love’s organic growth and ‘superpower’ lies with its founder, Emica Penklis, who is a naturopath, nutritionist, and herbalist. Her approach to making chocolate is highly innovative, Sali says.
“She is not professionally trained and uses herbs rather than refined chocolate sugars. It’s the biggest brand in healthy stores in Australia, and it is exploding,” says Sali.
Making chocolate the Penklis way
Loco Love’s unique ingredients and supply chain embodies the purpose-driven ethos Sali looks to invest in.
“We only use the finest organic, or tested for pesticides and whole food ingredients,” Penklis notes. “The true sorcery is in our unique blends of superfoods, tonic herbs and healing spices; it’s chocolate with benefits. We use healing ingredients like Schisandra berry, Tremella mushroom, maca powder, plant based collagen.”
Loco Love was born from a desire to create chocolate that is ethical and healthier.
“Normal chocolates (depending on the brand) are full of inflammatory vegetable fats (as they’re cheaper than cacao butter), packed with refined white sugar which spikes the blood sugar and can cause diabetes,” she says.
“They also contain a lot of dairy powder, which again, can cause allergies and be inflammatory. The cocoa itself is sourced from Ghana where the farmers are underpaid and the soil is so depleted, so the use of hazardous herbicides and pesticides is rife.”
Penklis founded the company in Byron Bay, where she grew up, more than a decade ago. Sourcing ingredients from ethical suppliers was a key tenet of her early business plan.
“We do not support any form of slavery,” she says. “So we buy our cacao from small farms in Peru where the farmers are paid fairly. Our cacao supplier is a socially responsible company that proves public-private alliances can generate a positive impact for the population and the environment.”
“Our chocolates are sweetened with natural wholefood sweeteners such as coconut sugar, brown rice syrup and maple syrup. We feel these are healthier options as they haven’t been stripped of minerals and are less refined than white cane sugar.”
That is good news for Sali, who wears a Continuous Glucose Monitor device to make sure what he is consuming doesn’t spike his glucose into dangerous territory.
“That chocolate doesn’t move my blue colours,” the biohacker says with a smile. “That’s how well my body adapts to the non-refined sugar that is in it. Plus, cacao is one of the healthiest antioxidants we can have.”
Sali’s enthusiasm for the way Loco Love is changing the chocolate game is palpable. He says he looks for passion, purpose and profit when he makes investments, along with willingness from the founders to “make positive contributions to society as a whole.”
In Penkis, he found a partner also deeply committed to holistic wellness.
“We’d never make anything that we wouldn’t want to eat ourselves, we’re fussy like that,” the founder and CEO says. “The integrity of our ingredients is crucial in crafting high-vibrational, nourishing products.” This means we say no to refined sugars, palm oil, artificial sweeteners, GMOs, and gluten.”
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