MARCELLUS, N.Y. (NCC News) – When you step into Chocolate Pizza Company’s small showroom in Marcellus, the unmistakable scent of cocoa and toffee fills the air. Newspaper and magazine clippings celebrating owner Ryan Novak line the walls.
“He’s just a really great guy,” Olivia Giadjo, a production employee at Chocolate Pizza Company, said. “I’ve learned a lot from him on how to run a business because I’d like to start my own someday.”
Last week, Novak launched his first book, “Inner Armor,” which details his journey to owning Chocolate Pizza Company. The book shares stories of loss and failure that led the company to where it is today.
Novak started at Chocolate Pizza Company at 15 as a dishwasher; by 21, he owned Central New York’s largest gourmet chocolate manufacturer, according to Chocolate Pizza Company’s website.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” Novak said, surrounded by seasonal chocolate pizzas. “I just had a dream that I loved the concept of chocolate pizza.”
Novak’s mother died in a car accident when he was 9. He said the uncertainty that followed taught him how to work through adversity and grow from it. Facing hardship created an “inner armor” for Novak as he unknowingly began developing the skills to become a businessman, he said in his book.
“I wouldn’t come to realize it for years; the truth is you build the entrepreneur before you build the business,” he wrote.
As a dishwasher at Chocolate Pizza Company, Novak was always curious about the business’s production side. As he grew in the company, simple ideas became profitable products, and “the chocolate pizza universe” kept expanding.
His book traces his journey from dishwasher to owner. Faced with the shutdown of the company, Novak stepped up as the owner of Chocolate Pizza Company in 2010, while working toward his degree in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management
He started this outreach at Community General Hospital, where his mom worked before she passed away, selling chocolate to hospital workers during shift changes.
“Being able to spread chocolate pizza to as many places is fantastic,” he said. “There are great businesses like Witty Wicks, Chuck Hafner’s Farmers Market, Wegmans, businesses like that in upstate New York that are proud to sell chocolate pizza, and we’re proud to have our products in their stores.”
Halloween-themed and Syracuse-themed chocolate pizzas are sold at local grocery stores and small businesses. Seasonal products are among Chocolate Pizza Company’s best sellers.
“Christmas definitely just gets a lot busier,” Kayla Negley, a Peanut Butter Wings production employee, said. “They’re learning every year that they do it how to do it better; they’re very adaptable.”
Learning from massive order influxes and success is pivotal to Novak’s efficiency. The company expanded three times: first by moving to more acreage, then by building and expanding a factory to meet growing demand.
Last year, an interview with David Muir on ABC News during the Christmas season led to 8 million views overnight and an overwhelming number of orders. During the Christmas season, Novak says Chocolate Pizza Company fills three trucks a day with chocolate pizzas and ships them out.
Novak, who describes himself as a Willy Wonka-Oompa-Loompa fusion, partners with businesses in the greater Syracuse area. Chocolate pizzas are sold in 800 locations nationwide.
What started as a gift basket company has become a nationally recognized small business. Perhaps “small” no longer adequately describes the company.
But the company’s small-town feel remains. Novak’s employees recalled visiting the store as children, winning chocolate pizzas at school fundraisers and working at the company while taking college classes. The chocolate factory is a tight-knit community, and so is everyone who supports it.
The story of Chocolate Pizza Company and Novak’s story are tightly intertwined; Novak wrote in his book that this is the business’s appeal.
“People weren’t just buying chocolate,” he wrote. “They were joining a story.”
Through his book, Novak hopes to share the realities of running a business with readers, from business students to longtime customers. He wants readers to learn how to navigate adversity while pursuing their own ideas.