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Thursday, March 27, 2014 9:57:02 AM
GNGR time line
After 25 years in the confection industry and having spent time in, New York, Japan, Canada, Idaho, California and New Jersey managing various factories and as a consultant, I formed Got Chocolates, Inc. in 1999.
Got Chocolates Locations since 1999
1999 - Sea Cliff NY: Strip mall location named "CHOCOLATES" a 1950's style cafe and chocolate shop and ice cream parlor. Here is the location where I decided to tinker with fudge and other items that were new and different. This location is where I created our initial fudge recipe and various packaging for retail sales.
2000 - We formed www.gotchocolates.com and started selling existing items on line that we do not make such as; Baci, Ferraro brand, Cellas cherries, Guylian shells and other items from existing companies.
2001 - We started selling our fudge in 8 ounce containers and also our own chocolates such as: Sea-shells, Turtles, Pickles and other items.
2001 - We moved our location to farmindgale NY and took over a closed up Italian Ice store (with existing kitchen). Here we perfected our fudge and our first large order came from FAIRWAY markets in NY City and Manhassett NY. We continued to increase the products on the internet but back then we were unable to list items ourselves and it was costly having to keep paying the administrator fees every time we had to change the website.
2001 - We called the NY state donation services and had a truck come to our location and we donated the entire retail stores merchandise inventory and all wholesale inventory to the crews working at the world trade centers 911 disaster site. We received a letter stating that so much food was donated that NY State had to actually give the overage to other food pantries and that no one donated chocolates except us which was very well received because there really were no sweets or desserts.
2002 - We moved from farmingdale NY to Islip NY on a main street retail location. Here we entered the Ad specialty market and obtained our ASI status as a member and we started taking in large orders for corporate custom chocolates. Customers included; FEDEX, UPS, Tropicaca, Johnson and Johnson, ATT and hundreds of other corporations. We quickly outgrew this location and at the same time explored going public.
2004 - We decided to raise capital under a Reg D 504 registration and began selling shares under the holding company name Gunther Grant, Inc. This capital raise went on for many years and as we hit certain financial goals we expanded our company based on what we had in capital reserves.
2005 - After raising enough money to purchase new equipment, coolers and high volume pumps and other items needed, we found that our location was too small. We found a location in East Islip NY, a free standing building with enough room to expand with our own parking lot and out building for storage. Here is where we stayed for 7 years. At this location we perfected our mold making techniques, Perfected even further our fudge and also increased our ad specialty sales. In addition we tried our first wholesale into the shopping giant BJ's wholesale clubs in 5 locations.
2006 - We continued to produce items for all markets and the BJ's sales were a steady $2500.00+- per week from the 5 locations (averaging $500 per week per location). We were asked to go into more BJ's but we did not have the capital or man power to produce and our location was overflowing with one pound gold brick fudges we sold at those 5 locations (with great success). 300 BJ's locations averaging $500 each (that's only 50 fudges per store per week) would be in the area of $150,000 per week in sales. NOTE: this is not a dead issue, we are going to meet with Bj's again with better packaging and longer shelf life.
2007 - We started doing paperwork and filing to become public on the OTCBB (not pink sheets). We registered with the SEC and started the legal comment process which included time consuming questions and answers with each response having to be edgarized by Donnelly & Co. at great cost each time. Having raised capital over a 4 year period and spending significant portion to take Gunther Grant, Inc. Public, we found that being an OTCBB company was too costly and time consuming. I had also promised we would be public in 2008 (a promise I regret because we could have raised $2,000,000 more before going public by 2010). But by all accounts and data, going public meant the ability to raise more capital and expand faster with more capital for production.
2008 - Gunther Grant, Inc. became public after deciding to file with FINRA and go on the pink sheets (now called OTC markets) due to the cost and time savings and also knowing we could eventually move up off the pink sheets to the OTCBB. The last quarter of 2008 we were issued our ticker symbol GNGR.
2009 - While filling orders and having new technology that allowed us to maintain our own website we launched various web sites such as ASIchocolates, LOGOCOCO, and others. At this time we also decided to raise that additional $2,000,000 using our public shares. Enter Bernie Madoff.. during the time that the SEC was under great scrutiny and at the same time the entire investment community fell victim to scams such as Madoff, Ebbers, Wanxin, Minkow and Long Islands own Nic Cosmo who scammed over $370,000,000 from investors all but shut the door on anyone investing in GNGR. (to think we needed only $2,000,000 out of $370,000,000 and we're STILL HERE! in full production).
2009 - This year was hard for GNGR and because our capital needs to survive were under control (unlike competitors that I used to work for fell victim to over growth and financing significant equipment) we were at least staying afloat but not raising any capital. One prospect that said they would invest but only after being public was a Jewish organization that saw potential with us and the possibility of opening up markets for confections in Israel declined to invest stating " we lost $50,000,000 with Madoff and at this time we are not investing in anything" This store was not unique. Anyone asked to invest with us was just saying no.
2010-2012 - We remained in the East Islip location, and attempts to renegotiate the lease to a lesser amount was not accepted and after 7 years we were told that if were not happy here we can move. After 7 years paying $3600 a month (totaling $302,400.00) we put equipment in storage and ceased production for about 1 year to regroup and look for a new location.
2012 - We met a group that said they can raise us capital for stock and because our float at that time was only 8,505,450 there were not enough shares to create liquidity or interest. After advise and taking a chance we agreed. We were told they would raise us between $400,000 and $650,000 for 100,000,000 shares. This action is the reason we now have 108,505,450 shares in the float (our current float) But in order to issue those 100,000,000, they had to represent 10% or they could not be released as unrestricted so we increased our authorized and issued shares to me and my team to retain control in the event those 108,505,450 became controlling I'm sure we would have had our company taken away and reverse merged and all GNGR hodlers shares cancelled.
2012- 2013 - During this year the 100,000,000 was put into market by that group and we were expecting $400,000 at the least only to be issued $200,000 and no more. I did express my anger and was told that to get the other $200,000 I would have to issue them more shares, I declined to protect GNGR from massive dilution. I did a radio interview and helped with news like Betty Boop licenses we have and other news but for the most part I do not know what that group did to market the shares and whom they marketing to or at what price. By my calculations they raised millions on those 100,000,000 shares and we were left with a just $200,000. We took steps to move ahead and started producing chocolates at a Farmingdale location where we rented the kitchen by the day at $150 per day. During this time we looked into other locations to open offices that led us to the Oakdale location where we opened Chocolates and Treasures. This was a place we sold chocolates and antiques from and also kept looking for a new closer location.
2013 - We signed a lease on the location in Sayville (our current location) with large full kitchen, walk in cooler and huge retail. With a 6 month rent of $900 and then $1800 for 5 years we are paying far less than $3600 in the East Islip location. We are currently up and running making casino orders, internet items and now we are baking cookies for corporate clients and casinos and retail. After one year we closed the Oakdale Chocolates and Treasures offices and moved them to sayville.
2014 - Still in production and the creation of the Oysters and other items including selling our wrapper bars on ebay (who would have thought) to new items and a plan of attack for getting back into BJs and other larger locations. It is at this time I found I needed a machine that did not exist and the Vortx was born. After 3 prototypes and trial and error we now have the PERFECT machine. I have used it 8 times and its the only unit I use to make these gourmet smaller production orders. The Vortex is still a confection product and was made out of necessity and because the units are fool proof we have a world wide equipment company handling all sales and leasing. A 25,000 sq ft facility has been secured in North Carolina and the "HOME of the VOTEX by Gunther Grant" sign will be installed this month. I will be headed to NC in the weeks ahead.
2014 - Vortex is submitted and is now Patent Pending. For one year we have time to make changes and correct any issue so that the final design will be submitted and we will get a full patent #. Additional items are being patented this week as well. We should have at least 10 Patent pending items.
2014 - Nestles issue is resolved, we will not be offering any wonka bars anymore until our proposal is re-written and sent to Nestles board of directors in Switzerland. We will still offer the Nestles wonka candy products on our website.
2014 - We will be making the kettles in North Carolina. The kettles motor, heat source, steel shell, agitator, scraper blades and parts are MADE IN THE USA.
I have been approached by some investors and individuals who are watching the medical marijuana laws in New York very closely. Seems NY may be the next state that will be legalizing the use of marijuana for medical reasons. This change in law will require producers to be able to process and produce products in a food approved facility. I have spoken to some of these investors and (dare I call them "marijuana engineers") who are also interested in our public status.
The Medical Marijuana stocks that have recently flooded the market are mostly idea stage companies or are in fact public shells that have no intention of ever producing any products (same as those so called gold mine stocks and lithium battery stocks) yet those stocks are as high (no pun intended) as $35.00 per share. Gunther Grant being a legitimate public company in the confection industry with full operations has attracted some who are serious as we are when it comes to success weather it be chocolate, kettles or even medical marijuana production. I do NOT condone this but the fact is that, times are changing and I do not want to miss opportunities or the possibility of GNGR reaping the benefits of a strong product market.
If a deal is struck it will be structured so that GNGR benefits as partial owner of that company and reap the benefits of those sales and also not have legal ties to that company. This would be win win for GNGR.
2014 (March 25th 1:56pm)
I have been given a proposal over the phone and am heading out to a meeting in 10 minutes to meet the Doctors and investors and engineers. The only piece missing is the production facility that is also publicly trading. This would NOT be an idea or shall company. They could have done a capital raise without my involvement. I will enter the meeting cautiously.
2015 - ??? The next year or two will be an exciting time for GNGR.
Grant
2013 all rights reserved - Copyright Gunther Grant, Inc.
http://www.gunthergrant.com/gngrhistory.html
screen shoots
After 25 years in the confection industry and having spent time in, New York, Japan, Canada, Idaho, California and New Jersey managing various factories and as a consultant, I formed Got Chocolates, Inc. in 1999.
Got Chocolates Locations since 1999
1999 - Sea Cliff NY: Strip mall location named "CHOCOLATES" a 1950's style cafe and chocolate shop and ice cream parlor. Here is the location where I decided to tinker with fudge and other items that were new and different. This location is where I created our initial fudge recipe and various packaging for retail sales.
2000 - We formed www.gotchocolates.com and started selling existing items on line that we do not make such as; Baci, Ferraro brand, Cellas cherries, Guylian shells and other items from existing companies.
2001 - We started selling our fudge in 8 ounce containers and also our own chocolates such as: Sea-shells, Turtles, Pickles and other items.
2001 - We moved our location to farmindgale NY and took over a closed up Italian Ice store (with existing kitchen). Here we perfected our fudge and our first large order came from FAIRWAY markets in NY City and Manhassett NY. We continued to increase the products on the internet but back then we were unable to list items ourselves and it was costly having to keep paying the administrator fees every time we had to change the website.
2001 - We called the NY state donation services and had a truck come to our location and we donated the entire retail stores merchandise inventory and all wholesale inventory to the crews working at the world trade centers 911 disaster site. We received a letter stating that so much food was donated that NY State had to actually give the overage to other food pantries and that no one donated chocolates except us which was very well received because there really were no sweets or desserts.
2002 - We moved from farmingdale NY to Islip NY on a main street retail location. Here we entered the Ad specialty market and obtained our ASI status as a member and we started taking in large orders for corporate custom chocolates. Customers included; FEDEX, UPS, Tropicaca, Johnson and Johnson, ATT and hundreds of other corporations. We quickly outgrew this location and at the same time explored going public.
2004 - We decided to raise capital under a Reg D 504 registration and began selling shares under the holding company name Gunther Grant, Inc. This capital raise went on for many years and as we hit certain financial goals we expanded our company based on what we had in capital reserves.
2005 - After raising enough money to purchase new equipment, coolers and high volume pumps and other items needed, we found that our location was too small. We found a location in East Islip NY, a free standing building with enough room to expand with our own parking lot and out building for storage. Here is where we stayed for 7 years. At this location we perfected our mold making techniques, Perfected even further our fudge and also increased our ad specialty sales. In addition we tried our first wholesale into the shopping giant BJ's wholesale clubs in 5 locations.
2006 - We continued to produce items for all markets and the BJ's sales were a steady $2500.00+- per week from the 5 locations (averaging $500 per week per location). We were asked to go into more BJ's but we did not have the capital or man power to produce and our location was overflowing with one pound gold brick fudges we sold at those 5 locations (with great success). 300 BJ's locations averaging $500 each (that's only 50 fudges per store per week) would be in the area of $150,000 per week in sales. NOTE: this is not a dead issue, we are going to meet with Bj's again with better packaging and longer shelf life.
2007 - We started doing paperwork and filing to become public on the OTCBB (not pink sheets). We registered with the SEC and started the legal comment process which included time consuming questions and answers with each response having to be edgarized by Donnelly & Co. at great cost each time. Having raised capital over a 4 year period and spending significant portion to take Gunther Grant, Inc. Public, we found that being an OTCBB company was too costly and time consuming. I had also promised we would be public in 2008 (a promise I regret because we could have raised $2,000,000 more before going public by 2010). But by all accounts and data, going public meant the ability to raise more capital and expand faster with more capital for production.
2008 - Gunther Grant, Inc. became public after deciding to file with FINRA and go on the pink sheets (now called OTC markets) due to the cost and time savings and also knowing we could eventually move up off the pink sheets to the OTCBB. The last quarter of 2008 we were issued our ticker symbol GNGR.
2009 - While filling orders and having new technology that allowed us to maintain our own website we launched various web sites such as ASIchocolates, LOGOCOCO, and others. At this time we also decided to raise that additional $2,000,000 using our public shares. Enter Bernie Madoff.. during the time that the SEC was under great scrutiny and at the same time the entire investment community fell victim to scams such as Madoff, Ebbers, Wanxin, Minkow and Long Islands own Nic Cosmo who scammed over $370,000,000 from investors all but shut the door on anyone investing in GNGR. (to think we needed only $2,000,000 out of $370,000,000 and we're STILL HERE! in full production).
2009 - This year was hard for GNGR and because our capital needs to survive were under control (unlike competitors that I used to work for fell victim to over growth and financing significant equipment) we were at least staying afloat but not raising any capital. One prospect that said they would invest but only after being public was a Jewish organization that saw potential with us and the possibility of opening up markets for confections in Israel declined to invest stating " we lost $50,000,000 with Madoff and at this time we are not investing in anything" This store was not unique. Anyone asked to invest with us was just saying no.
2010-2012 - We remained in the East Islip location, and attempts to renegotiate the lease to a lesser amount was not accepted and after 7 years we were told that if were not happy here we can move. After 7 years paying $3600 a month (totaling $302,400.00) we put equipment in storage and ceased production for about 1 year to regroup and look for a new location.
2012 - We met a group that said they can raise us capital for stock and because our float at that time was only 8,505,450 there were not enough shares to create liquidity or interest. After advise and taking a chance we agreed. We were told they would raise us between $400,000 and $650,000 for 100,000,000 shares. This action is the reason we now have 108,505,450 shares in the float (our current float) But in order to issue those 100,000,000, they had to represent 10% or they could not be released as unrestricted so we increased our authorized and issued shares to me and my team to retain control in the event those 108,505,450 became controlling I'm sure we would have had our company taken away and reverse merged and all GNGR hodlers shares cancelled.
2012- 2013 - During this year the 100,000,000 was put into market by that group and we were expecting $400,000 at the least only to be issued $200,000 and no more. I did express my anger and was told that to get the other $200,000 I would have to issue them more shares, I declined to protect GNGR from massive dilution. I did a radio interview and helped with news like Betty Boop licenses we have and other news but for the most part I do not know what that group did to market the shares and whom they marketing to or at what price. By my calculations they raised millions on those 100,000,000 shares and we were left with a just $200,000. We took steps to move ahead and started producing chocolates at a Farmingdale location where we rented the kitchen by the day at $150 per day. During this time we looked into other locations to open offices that led us to the Oakdale location where we opened Chocolates and Treasures. This was a place we sold chocolates and antiques from and also kept looking for a new closer location.
2013 - We signed a lease on the location in Sayville (our current location) with large full kitchen, walk in cooler and huge retail. With a 6 month rent of $900 and then $1800 for 5 years we are paying far less than $3600 in the East Islip location. We are currently up and running making casino orders, internet items and now we are baking cookies for corporate clients and casinos and retail. After one year we closed the Oakdale Chocolates and Treasures offices and moved them to sayville.
2014 - Still in production and the creation of the Oysters and other items including selling our wrapper bars on ebay (who would have thought) to new items and a plan of attack for getting back into BJs and other larger locations. It is at this time I found I needed a machine that did not exist and the Vortx was born. After 3 prototypes and trial and error we now have the PERFECT machine. I have used it 8 times and its the only unit I use to make these gourmet smaller production orders. The Vortex is still a confection product and was made out of necessity and because the units are fool proof we have a world wide equipment company handling all sales and leasing. A 25,000 sq ft facility has been secured in North Carolina and the "HOME of the VOTEX by Gunther Grant" sign will be installed this month. I will be headed to NC in the weeks ahead.
2014 - Vortex is submitted and is now Patent Pending. For one year we have time to make changes and correct any issue so that the final design will be submitted and we will get a full patent #. Additional items are being patented this week as well. We should have at least 10 Patent pending items.
2014 - Nestles issue is resolved, we will not be offering any wonka bars anymore until our proposal is re-written and sent to Nestles board of directors in Switzerland. We will still offer the Nestles wonka candy products on our website.
2014 - We will be making the kettles in North Carolina. The kettles motor, heat source, steel shell, agitator, scraper blades and parts are MADE IN THE USA.
I have been approached by some investors and individuals who are watching the medical marijuana laws in New York very closely. Seems NY may be the next state that will be legalizing the use of marijuana for medical reasons. This change in law will require producers to be able to process and produce products in a food approved facility. I have spoken to some of these investors and (dare I call them "marijuana engineers") who are also interested in our public status.
The Medical Marijuana stocks that have recently flooded the market are mostly idea stage companies or are in fact public shells that have no intention of ever producing any products (same as those so called gold mine stocks and lithium battery stocks) yet those stocks are as high (no pun intended) as $35.00 per share. Gunther Grant being a legitimate public company in the confection industry with full operations has attracted some who are serious as we are when it comes to success weather it be chocolate, kettles or even medical marijuana production. I do NOT condone this but the fact is that, times are changing and I do not want to miss opportunities or the possibility of GNGR reaping the benefits of a strong product market.
If a deal is struck it will be structured so that GNGR benefits as partial owner of that company and reap the benefits of those sales and also not have legal ties to that company. This would be win win for GNGR.
2014 (March 25th 1:56pm)
I have been given a proposal over the phone and am heading out to a meeting in 10 minutes to meet the Doctors and investors and engineers. The only piece missing is the production facility that is also publicly trading. This would NOT be an idea or shall company. They could have done a capital raise without my involvement. I will enter the meeting cautiously.
2015 - ??? The next year or two will be an exciting time for GNGR.
Grant
2013 all rights reserved - Copyright Gunther Grant, Inc.
http://www.gunthergrant.com/gngrhistory.html
screen shoots
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