Building a sweet spot in business

Dealing with chocolate, it is hard to imagine that thousandths of an inch are crucial in its creation. But for Micelli Chocolate Mold Co., it is those fine details keeps it among the few polycarbonate chocolate mold makers in the world.

“Chocolate molds have always been our core business. We deal with the big operations — all the big guys and all the little guys. We're in every state,” said Tim Goddeau, operations manager at Micelli in West Babylon, N.Y.

He said there are few makers of PC molds for chocolate in the world and Micelli bills itself as the only one in North America. Its competition is European.

Even a simple chocolate mold requires the utmost precision.

“We have tolerances to the 1,000ths on everything we touch,” Goddeau said.

The company builds injection molds from aluminum and then uses them to create polycarbonate molds with multiple cavities that are used to produce all sorts of chocolate treats.

“We use polycarbonate so we run everything low melt and our walls are 1/8 to ¼ inch thick so they are really robust,” he said.

Goddeau added: “With chocolate nothing is standardized. Every mold we make is different, different lengths and different widths. There's somewhere between 150-200 different configurations.”

He said the company is always working on new molds. When the price of chocolate rises, it means that less chocolate will be used, so a different mold is needed.

“[Customers] tell us the target and the cavity size. We know all the densities of all the chocolates and any of the filings so we are able to hit the targets,” he said.

Goddeau said Micelli currently has more than 5,000 chocolate molds in house. They're used by just about every chocolate maker in the U.S. and many others worldwide.

Goddeau said that means Micelli has to keep upgrading its machinery. In the last two years, it has added two Bole EK series injection molding machines as well as eight Haas machining centers.

The company added a 880-ton Bole last year to handle a large project for 110,000 polycarbonate molds that meant using over a half million pounds of low-melt polycarbonate.

Pleased with the simplicity of the Bole toggle design, the company added a 360 ton Bole this year. He said the design meant less flex in the platen and molds, and more material savings.

He said that chocolate molds account for 60 to 70 percent of its business. Micelli also molds point-of-purchase displays, beverage trays for delis, and cosmetics.

Micelli operates seven injection molding machines, ranging from 80 to 1,750 tons of clamping force. It has nine computer numerically controlled machining centers in its tool room. It operates out of 20,000 square feet of space in three buildings and has 30 employees. The company is located on Long Island, about 40 miles outside New York City.

The company started in 1947 when steel molds were used. In the 1970s it turned to injection molding of plastic molds for chocolate. In 1991 the company changed its name as it dropped all metal molds.

In 1995, it moved from New York to Long Island, and in 2010 it added another facility, doubling its size. Goddeau said the company specializes in low-volume molding, and its typical run is a matter of hours or days.

He said that the company still sees a lot of growth ahead, with artisan chocolate makers as well as the legal marijuana industry providing new markets. As more states allow marijuana use, it does provide more regulation and the need for the right mold.

For example, he noted that some regulations require a warning of THC content, and that means molds have to be redone to include them.