Bedré, Oklahoma's 'hometown chocolate,' launches year with big plans

DAVIS — At Bedré Fine Chocolate in Davis, holiday preparations start months in advance.

When a supplier arrived one day to show off small samples of holiday gift boxes, company executives not only ordered the larger sizes, but also stocked up on the miniature ones. Four of the company’s signature chocolate squares, called Meltaways, fit perfectly inside, general manager and head chocolatier Kay Colbert said.

The small boxes dotted the store shelves in the days leading up to Christmas. An employee in a nearby room prepared more miniature baskets for sale, choosing each chocolate from large cardboard boxes filled with flavors such as mint and caramel.

“Everybody likes coming up here, it’s almost like Santa’s workshop,” Colbert said.

For Bedré, the holidays marked the final chapter of 2022, a year the company used nearly 500,000 pounds of chocolate to make bars, squares and more. Its evolution from a small Ada facility to a well-known Made in Oklahoma brand began 22 years ago, when the Chickasaw Nation bought the company. Annual production was less than 100,000 pounds of chocolate.

In March, Bedré will begin installing new molding equipment that will allow it to greatly increase production within its 36,000-square-foot facility.

“You look at that, and you look at where we are today,” Colbert said. “We’ve managed to keep that unique flavor and the idea of the original chocolate.”

The Chickasaw Nation may be best known for its gaming business. The tribe operates casinos and hotels along the southern half of the Interstate 35 corridor in Oklahoma, drawing people from Dallas and other parts of Texas.

But the Chickasaw business portfolio includes dozens of other companies. Many are based in south central Oklahoma, like the nation itself. Bedré sits along I-35, a five-minute drive from downtown Davis and 20 minutes from Sulphur, where the Chickasaw Nation’s first business still operates today. The tribe bought the Artesian Hotel in 1972.

Fifty years later, the tribe has 14,000 employees and is one of the 10 largest employers in Oklahoma, according to state figures. The Chickasaw Nation’s business income, like that of many other tribes, pays for government services, education, infrastructure and future development.

“We are investing for the long term, because we’re thinking about not the next quarter and not even the next generation — seven generations ahead,” said Dan Boren, Chickasaw commerce secretary.

The network of tribally owned businesses provides stability and jobs for the regional economy, said Davis Mayor Brian Davis, who operates a tag and insurance agency in the small city, population 2,800.

Davis said the businesses also help set the region apart. “When those entities draws people here to Davis, it has a positive impact on other businesses, as well,” he said.

And Bedré is rooted to the region even as its brand continues to grow.

“This is the Chickasaw Nation’s chocolate company,” Colbert said, “and it’s always going to be in central Oklahoma.”

How Bedré chocolate is made

Bedré takes its name from the Norwegian word for “better.” The name stuck when the Chickasaw Nation bought it in 2000 and moved production to Pauls Valley. The current factory in Davis opened in 2013.

Inside, customers can browse through a retail shop stocked with chocolate squares, chocolate bars, chocolate sauce and chocolate-themed gift baskets. A wall of windows looks out to the factory floor so customers can see inside. On a recent week day, workers sorted mint chocolates into packages. Wood crates filled with chocolate, wrapped in plastic and topped with bows were lined up, waiting to be shipped.

The tribe operates a visitors center with free coffee next door and a travel stop directly across State Highway 7. The travel stop stocks Bedré Chocolate, as do many of the tribe’s other retail shops.

Most of Bedré’s business is through wholesale accounts and corporate gifting, Colbert said. She is also a Chickasaw Nation citizen and has worked in various roles for the tribe throughout the years.

“It’s amazing how many people know about this chocolate,” she said.

A custom formula serves as the base for all Bedré chocolate products. The chocolate arrives to the factory as wafers, which are made by a contractor that sources its cocoa beans through a sustainability and living wage program called Cacao-Trace, Colbert said.

Bedré melts the wafers, then the melted chocolate goes through an automated tempering process. The final phases of production transform the chocolate into the products customers see and taste, from chocolate squares to chocolate covered gummy bears.

Bedré makes more than a dozen flavors of Meltaways alone. Milk chocolate caramel and milk chocolate peanut butter are among the most popular. Dark chocolate caramel and dark chocolate peanut butter are two of the newest flavors, Colbert said. Orange-flavored chocolate is also set for a return.

Adding new flavors or products can take six months or more, as employees fine tune each new recipe so it can be made on a large scale, Colbert said. A new product also means coming up with a new packaging design. Many of the products are now in resealable pouches, a change from the past when chocolate covered chips, for example, were sold in canisters.

The artwork on some of the products pays homage to Chickasaw culture.

Holiday sales start ticking up in October, so the goal is to finish preparations by September, Colbert said. Although production ramps up in line with demand, Bedré maintains its workforce year-round, usually 27 to 28 workers, she said.

Bedré is able to avoid seasonal hiring spikes and layoffs because being a stable employer for the region is important to the Chickasaw Nation, Colbert said. The company also did not lay off any workers because of COVID-19 shutdowns.

Being a tribally owned business is “definitely part of our story,” she said.

Tribes employ more than 50,000 people in Oklahoma

For the Chickasaw Nation, Bedré provides a recognizable brand that people have come to associate with the tribe, said Boren, who oversees the nation’s businesses as commerce secretary.

“If you come have a business meeting, there’s usually a tray of Bedré chocolate associated with it,” said Boren, a former member of Congress who represented parts of Oklahoma in the U.S. House from 2005 to 2013.

Bedré does not disclose its sales figures. But the tribe’s business portfolio as a whole has rebounded strongly from the pandemic. Business income increased 43% from 2020 to 2021, longtime Chickasaw Gov. Bill Anoatubby said in his October state of the nation address.

The gaming business recorded much of that growth, he said, but he also credited good management decisions to keep costs in check across Chickasaw businesses.

“We cannot always expect that number to continue to go up that rate,” Anoatubby said in his speech. “We will still grow and are continuing to grow.”

Apart from gaming, some of the Chickasaw Nation’s strongest sectors are government contracting and banking, Boren said. The nation is involved in more than 100 different businesses and is developing more. The Chickasaw Nation joined with other investors earlier this month to buy the historic Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City.

Businesses operated by the Chickasaw Nation and other tribes make up a large part of the state’s economy. In 2019, tribes employed 54,000 people in Oklahoma, and their businesses generated $7 billion in revenue, according to a report published earlier this year by Kyle Dean, an economics professor at Oklahoma City University. The revenues covered wages, benefits, government services and other expenses, such as road repairs. The state also receives a share of gaming revenues, which it spends mostly on education.

When the Chickasaw leaders weigh new business opportunities, they focus on long term stability and growth when it considers new investments, Boren said.

“It’s extremely important when we make those investment decisions, that we make them in a way that we know if we make a bad decision or a wrong decision, that it impacts the level of services that we can render to Chickasaw citizens,” he said.

Bedré plans to expand production, retail

Colbert is excited for the future of Bedré, which she calls Oklahoma’s hometown chocolate company. She and other company officials have plans to expand its reach, especially in the South.

Wholesale accounts will be a big part of that. Colbert said the company would also like to expand its retail arm, perhaps through a standalone flagship store.

Thanks to growing name recognition, Bedré has added more branded, non-chocolate products this year, such as mugs, blankets and stuffed bears. Two small puzzles of chocolate scenes are especially popular with travelers who stop in on the tour buses that visit often, Colbert said.

Another recent focus is home cooks. Bedré now sells chocolate meant to be used in baking and added a series of recipes, such as “very very chocolaty chocolate cookies,” to its website, bedrechocolates.com.

“Our goal is just to make as much chocolate as we can and try to deliver it to as many outlets as we can,” Colbert said.

Davis, the city's mayor, visits Bedré with his family to stock up on Christmas gifts, including chocolate shaped like the state of Texas.

“We have family in Texas,” he said, “and they love their Bedré chocolate gifts.”

Molly Young covers Indigenous affairs for the USA Today Network's Sunbelt Region. Reach her at mollyyoung@gannett.com or 405-347-3534.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: In rural Davis, Bedré chocolate and Chickasaw businesses make impact