More than a chocolatier: Mariane Oliveira is a role model for female entrepreneurs

Written By

Christine Peddie

2 years ago

It’s no surprise that Mariane Oliveira is best known as one of the city’s top chocolate entrepreneurs. After all, through her company, Mary’s Brigadeiro, she sells a giddy assortment of picture-perfect, creamy, condensed milk sweetened confections called brigadeiro. Yet, after seven years in business, with a company that’s exploding in popularity and reach, Oliveira is more than just a business-savvy chocolatier. She’s also a role-model and community leader, as keen on supporting and promoting other women as she is on sharing her journey in the hopes of helping others.

“It’s pretty much all about people. It’s about sharing moments of happiness and joy and fun with others and with yourself. This is what brigadeiros represent for us,” says Oliveira. A popular party treat in Brazil, brigadeiros are as much about celebration and togetherness as they are about nirvana-like, sweet-tooth satisfaction delivered via two-bite morsels of deliciousness. When Oliveira arrived in Toronto from São Paulo, she saw “a market full of cupcakes, fudge, brownies and macarons,” yet devoid of her beloved brigadeiros.

“I knew that in Brazil we had something amazing and different to offer to North America,” she says. Oliveira recognized that the simple mixture of butter, cocoa powder, Fair trade chocolate, condensed milk and little else, was a way to bring Brazil to the city and to nudge its people toward a new way to enjoy chocolate, an ever-favourite confection. “It’s a cross between a chocolate, a caramel or even a fudge, but with a creamier, velvet, little bit chewier texture,” explains Oliveira. “For people who have never tried a brigadeiro before, we can say it’s a new experience in chocolate.”

Using a family recipe, and know-how gleaned from watching her mother make brigadeiros as a young girl, Oliveira launched Mary’s Brigadeiro. With her mother as her inspiration, Oliveira “started just with an online shop.” The company progressed to “farmers markets around the city, and small popups inside of shops.” When a high-end specialty store in Toronto started selling Oliveira’s treats, everything changed.

“After that, business started pushing us to open a physical store," says Oliveira. "Customers started wondering, ‘Who is the Mary behind this? How do they make the chocolates?’ They wanted to see more.”

From there, Mary’s Brigadeiro grew to include a flagship location at 1912 Danforth Avenue as well as a production space to keep up with growing popularity and the wholesale side of business. Passionate about preserving her unique products’ artisanal traits, Oliveira’s store includes an open kitchen. There, customers can watch “Chocolate Heroes” as they hand roll each sweet in one of an assortment of colourful, flavourful sprinkles and toppings.

Encouraged by the city’s welcome reception to her brigadeiros, Oliveira appeared on CBC’s Dragon’s Den in 2019. There, she landed a deal with dragon Arlene Dickinson, further bolstering her and her company’s fame in local, food-centric circles.

The pandemic was, without doubt, one of the biggest challenges Oliveira has faced since opening. “We didn’t have the answers,” she says. Like so many, all Oliveira could do as she navigated the months that followed initial closures was “try.” Thinking on her feet, Oliveira says she decided, “let’s take the risk. If we fail, that’s ok, we keep trying,” she adds. Happily, Oliveira’s best guesses proved fruitful as “during the pandemic, we were shocked because the business grew more than 400 per cent,” she exclaims.

“Chocolate became essential. Not just to enjoy because people were stuck at home and started eating more, but also because they really wanted to make other people feel good and send them gifts.” What the pandemic also brought to light was how much Oliveira and her company mean to Toronto. “We noticed how strong is the community that we’ve built,” she says. “People started supporting us like crazy. People started calling, making sure that we are good. It was beautiful to see that they really wanted us to survive.”

Riding the unexpected wave of pandemic-fueled popularity, in 2021 the company partnered with Chef Drop. “They approached me because they really wanted something different on their dessert menu,” says Oliveira. “They loved the concept that we created with our DIY kit.” Perfect for the city’s lockdown weary, each DIY Brigadeiro Chocolate Kit delivered brigadeiro ganache, a selection of toppings and the inherent promise of a fun, hands-on activity resulting in a slew of cute, delectable treats.

Chocolate became essential. Not just to enjoy because people were stuck at home and started eating more, but also because they really wanted to make other people feel good and send them gifts.

Bubbly, confident and gracious, it’s easy to believe that Oliveira’s journey has been nothing but smooth sailing. Yet to get to where she is now, has taken tenacity, faith and Herculean strength of character. An entrepreneur’s path is never easy.

“Being a woman, a black woman, an immigrant, a newcomer in a country that’s not mine. That’s another level,” says Oliveira. “I pretty much needed to learn from zero. Everything… I worked so hard.”

Since day one, every challenge has “motivated me to keep going, to not let these things stop me,” she adds. “It’s like a punch in your face in the beginning, but then you just think outside the box.” Someone who seems to thrive on silver linings, Oliveira adds that hardships simply inspired her “to take a different direction. [They] drove me to dream bigger.” Generously, Oliveira also credits her success to others. “I was also lucky enough to find amazing people through my entrepreneurship journey that were able to help me,” she says.

Besides its trademark chocolates, Mary’s Brigadeiro now sells cookies (stuffed with brigadeiro, naturally), hot chocolate, brigadeiro spread (for those who prefer to dive in with a spoon), and more. "Every season we have something different to offer,” explains Oliveira. “A few products have already become our signature products that we have to bring back every season, like the Chocottone. People go crazy over this creation.” While some are seasonal, other offerings often signal a new collaboration.

“We have a preference to support other women in business. We try as much as we can to collaborate with something different than what we have. Like, we want to create now a signature candle that pairs the scent with our chocolate.” Previously, Mary’s Brigadeiro also partnered with local company Wrappr on sustainable, Japanese-style furoshiki gift wrapping done with fabric designed by independent artists, many of whom are women. “Pretty much it’s all women,” laughs Oliveira. “People just love it. We were able to wrap our chocolate boxes and it becomes a nice gift.”

The last two years have challenged even the most established of businesses, and inspired us all to move toward our dreams without holding back. For Oliveira, that means more stores, a bigger production space, and a bigger team. “The business already proved to me, many times, that it’s ready for the next step,” she says. “I was holding a bit, growing my mental health as a women to make sure that I’d be ready for this next step.” This year, Mary’s Brigadeiro is “expanding to have a more effective production and be able to approach different markets around Canada. It’s scary!” Yet that’s exactly how Oliveira knows that she’s making the right move. “For me, when I’m in the comfort zone level, I don’t see things happen,” she says. “It’s super scary but you have to take the next step. Every next step is scary especially when we are not able to see what’s after that next step. But It moves you forward.”

For others in similar shoes, women facing a world of opportunity yet unsure where to start, Oliveira recommends looking for strategic partnerships, especially with women.

"It’s beautiful to see how strong we are together. We are always there to support each other because we know how hard it is to be a woman,” she says. Beyond that, “don’t give up,” encourages Oliveira. “Make sure the things you are doing are making your heart beat stronger. When you feel this, when you feel the butterflies in your stomach, that’s when you’re going in the right direction.”

A BIPOC, female entrepreneur whose success story is as sweet as they come, Oliveira is humble about her accomplishments. “I’m proud of me,” she says, as if just coming to the realization. Most of all, “I’m really proud to say, as an immigrant, that with the business I’m able to provide quality and equal jobs,” she shares. “With the expansion, I’m dying to see this place full of women creating, making chocolates. It’s nice to see that we’re able to provide such an amazing opportunity to all of them.” As proud of the community that she’s assembled as she is of her business, Oliveira recognizes the positivity that comes from dedication, equity and working toward a common goal. That reaching the goal means more brigadeiros for us all, just makes the story sweeter still.

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