YORK -- With chocolate in the news because sales are up despite the recession*, it’s smart to have chocolate producers as customers. For Marc Laucks, who recently supervised a key print run of a new-style chocolate wrapper with the company’s owner, it’s exciting.

“Quite honestly this is a tremendous opportunity for my business because I’m seeing the evolution of a company that has continued to grow despite the recession,” says Laucks, owner of Marc Laucks and Company, a York, PA, print management firm. “I first met the founders of Madegasse almost a year ago. They were just starting to find their way, and then?bam?they got hit by a worldwide recession. Yet they continued to evolve, and we continued to do business together.”

According to Laucks, Madecasse (www.madecasse.com/index.html) goes beyond fair trade: “Rather than purchasing cacao beans cheaply from farmers and taking jobs offshore to developed countries, Madecasse made a conscious decision to improve the lives of the people on the island of Madagascar.” The company set up the whole production?from bean to bar?on the island off West Africa, generating four times the economic activity and transferring valuable skills. Malagasy Ambassador to the United Nations Zina Andrianarivelo stated, "Madécasse has taken a non-traditional route. It's not the easy route, but it’s the type of trade model and thinking that can help Madagascar in an important way.”

McCollum and his partner at Madécasse, Brett Beach, had lived in Madagascar, an island off Southeast Africa, while serving in the Peace Corps and became fascinated with the unique island and, initially, its vanilla crop. In 2008, McCollum and Beach formed Madécasse and began setting up the whole production?from tree to bean to bar?right in Madagascar, generating four times the economic activity and transferring valuable skills.

The new pouch-type wrapper printed in York brings additional hand-labor work—and income¬—to the indigenous Malagasy. The pouch construction is also necessary because Madécasse’s production partner in Madagascar does not have a machine that can automatically wrap the chocolate. At the same time, it’s more economical for the Brookyln-based chocolate company, making it a win–win for all parties. Always conscious of sustainability, Laucks made sure the wrappers are made from paper containing at least 30% PCW.