NN Chocolatier and The Box: Cherish the Box

NN Chocolatier and The Box combine spirituality with packaging.

LAHORE:

At the Women’s Expo held two months ago, one stall, despite being tucked away in an obscure corner of the hall, kept attracting a swarm of visitors.

On closer inspection, it was clear why: Chocolates and cupcakes, along with an array of adorable boxes, were tantalising the steady stream of visitors. Naveen Nooruddin, the enterprising lady behind two successful ventures, NN Chocolatier and The Box, generously wooed the on-lookers with more. After all who can resist a chocolate tree surrounded by mini platters of delectable mini iced cup cakes?

A young lady, Naveen Nooruddin began her company ‘The Box’ as a hobby, when she created fancy celebration give-aways to announce her son’s birth. Appreciation from friends and relatives helped her to expand the operation into a fancy packaging company with an alluring dedicated space inside the bridal studio Tehxeeb in Gulberg, a store inside her mother’s home in Defence, and an outlet at Thokar Niaz Baig to deal with out-of-station clients as well as international exports.

“The Expo gave us the media coverage that we lacked, but as Lahore is a small city, everyone knows us well,” said Nooruddin, who designed wedding cards and give-aways for a wedding as high profile as that of the family behind the Bahria Town construction company.

Although Nooruddin started off just making fancy boxes, she was encouraged by her clients to create something to put inside. “People no longer want to give traditional mithais, so I decided to make homemade chocolates for one client and there was no turning back,” said Nooruddin, as she recalled her first assignment of 1,200 chocolates ordered from Peshawar that she made singlehandedly.

Now, of course, she has her merry band of women to help her. “I had trained my girls to do floral decorations on boxes, and then they insisted on learning more. Creative projects like these empower women in such a big way. I have seen the aesthetics evolve in my team. Girls these days no longer want to just be maids,” said Nooruddin, who has provided her staff with monogrammed uniforms to make them feel that they are professionals.

Nooruddin sees her work as an aspect of tableegh and community service. For those hosting Hajj or Umrah related events, she creates special wrapping paper and packaging that carries Hadith regarding sharing and generosity. From working with a kaam wala at Badami Bagh to create embellished boxes that can later be used as decorative dressing table boxes or even as clutches: Using discarded PVC pipes to make cylindrical boxes and reciting the Darood on every chocolate and cup cake that she makes, to encouraging her clients to recycle and receive discounts on bringing her platters of goodies back for re-fills, Nooruddin feels she is trying to spread the basic tenets of good will and community wellbeing that Islam teaches but are often forgotten. “Using skilled workers who are becoming defunct, or recycling products, is not only the ‘in’ thing to do, but also an important aspect of corporate social responsibility,” says Nooruddin.

“My philosophy is ‘Cherish the Box’,” asserts Nooruddin, and one can see the effort she has made at ensuring that nothing goes to waste. The salami envelopes made from leather and the embellished boxes with mirrors inside can all be used as accessories, as can the cup cake platters that can be used as small trays at home.

Who would have thought that one could combine something as sublime as spirituality with something as base and overt as packaging? Yet therein lays the strength of NN Chocolatier and The Box, as they serve as an innovative example for those who wish to spread the message of goodwill and social harmony in Islam in a non-obtrusive and socially cohesive manner.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2011.