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Well, hello ladies and gents, 
Robert Sykes, Keto savage.com 

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and today is not a normal 
podcast. 

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I do not have a guest on. 
This is a short podcast. 

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It's just me talking a little 
biz dev with y'all got some 

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updates on the keto brick 
situation, some entrepreneurial 

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ship talk here Yeah, we've got 
some unprecedented times in the 

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cacao butter market. 
We're going through a little bit

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of a cacao butter crisis, so to 
speak. 

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So I wanted to bring y'all up to
speed on that, how that's going 

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to impact the bricks, how it's 
going to impact y'all that 

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consume the bricks. 
So this podcast is just a little

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update and a little business 
talk. 

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So hopefully you enjoy. 
I will definitely be transparent

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with all things going forward as
always. 

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But yeah, this little podcast I 
want to put on my podcast 

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platform as well as a YouTube 
video for all the people that 

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prefer viewing as opposed to 
listening. 

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But for all you lovely 
listeners, here you go. 

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What is going on y'all? 
Robert Sykes, Keto brick.com and

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I got an announcement for y'all.
So I have always prided myself 

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in being as transparent with 
y'all as possible from the very 

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get go. 
I've shown you all the behind 

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the scenes of us slaving away 
making these bricks by hand when

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we first in, you know, conceived
the product back in 2017, 

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launched in 2018. 
And I've, I've tried to show you

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all the behind the scenes every 
step of the way from moving to 

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one location to the next. 
You know, the different 

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flavours, the different 
profiles, like all that stuff. 

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We've increased the prices twice
since we've been in business. 

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I don't like increasing prices. 
We don't offer discounts on the 

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bricks apart from our 
anniversary launch, as you all 

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know, because the margins on the
bricks are so slim in the 1st 

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place. 
I am an entrepreneur. 

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I love business, I love 
entrepreneurship. 

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I love creating something of 
value with my own two hands and 

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putting it out into the world. 
Some things in business are 

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outside of my control and right 
now we are facing one of those 

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situations. 
I don't know if you're in the 

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know or not about the cacao 
butter crisis that is currently 

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underway, but if you simply 
Google cacao butter crisis, you 

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will be inundated with all kinds
of information about what is 

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going on. 
Basically, from what I've 

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gathered, I've talked to 
multiple suppliers at this 

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point, there was an El Nino 
season in Africa where a lot of 

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the cacao crops are produced. 
Basically decimated their crop 

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plantation by a third, some 
estimates say 2/3 of their 

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normal production. 
So there is a massive shortage 

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on the cacao market supply right
now. 

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Basic supply and demand that has
resulted in a crazy increase in 

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costs of cacao butter. 
To give you all some 

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perspective, I've been in a 
contract on cacao butter at 5 

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bucks a pound and I got recently
quoted at $10.10 a pound. 

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So I bought that up. 
I got 3600 lbs of cacao butter 

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at $10.10 a pound and I am now 
getting quotes north of $20 a 

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pound. 
That is a pretty significant 

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increase from the $5 a pound 
that I've been paying for cacao 

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butter. 
As you all know, the margins on 

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the bricks are already minuscule
to begin with, which is why we 

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don't do the discounts. 
So an increase by that degree 

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for our primary ingredient is 
not a good thing for business. 

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And I'm just trying to stay in 
business. 

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I'm trying to be proactive. 
I'm trying to be resilient. 

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I'm trying to do right by y'all.
I'm trying to figure out what I 

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need to do as the owner of this 
company to take it in the right 

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direction so that we stay in 
business. 

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So we keep offering the bricks 
at a reasonable price and do 

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everything to the best of my 
ability. 

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And I've been looking at my 
different options and 

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unfortunately, I don't have much
control over the rainy season in

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Africa. 
I don't know when prices will 

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stabilize, if they will 
stabilize. 

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There are so many unknowns right
now. 

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Like it cost me a lot of sleep 
at night to say the least. 

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At $20 a pound, I am losing a 
significant amount of money on 

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the bricks at their current 
pricing. 

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And I can't stay in business if 
I'm losing money because then I 

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can't buy more ingredients to 
make more bricks to make the 

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whole process work. 
So what I'm going to do as 

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proactively as possible is 
currently the pricing on the 

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bricks is $12.00 for a single 
brick. 

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That price has actually never 
changed. 

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That was the price that we 
started out with six years ago 

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and that's the price that we've 
kept. 

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I'm going to try and keep that 
the same. 

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So 12 bucks for a brick, a 
single brick. 

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What has changed for the two 
times that we have adjusted 

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pricing as we went from the, you
know, one week supply, two weeks

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supply, one month supply to the 
volume discount system which is 

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what we currently use. 
In which case if you buy, you 

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know six or more bricks, you get
a 20% discount and then you buy 

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beyond that you get a 25% 
discount and then 24 bricks and 

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more is a 30% discount. 
What I'm going to do to try and 

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mitigate this whole cost 
increase of cacao butter 

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situation is simply reduce the 
cost of the volume or reduce the

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discount inherent in the volume 
discount. 

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So now rather than getting a 20%
discount when you buy 6 bricks 

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or more, you're going to get a 
10% discount. 

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When you buy 24 bricks or more, 
rather than getting a 30% 

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discount, you're going to get a 
20% discount. 

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So basically everything drops by
10% across the board on the 

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volume discount tier system. 
I feel like that is the most 

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reasonable way to go about it 
rather than me increasing the 

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cost of the bricks from $12.00. 
Rather than me charging shipping

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or anything like that, I'm just 
simply going to reduce the 

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volume discount by 10% across 
the board. 

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That will hopefully offset this 
crazy increase in cacao butter 

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to some degree at the $10.10 
price. 

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If if I'm having to get Brexit, 
$20 a pound, that's still not 

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going to cover that shortage 
there. 

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So I don't honestly know what's 
going to happen. 

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I'm playing it by ear right now 
as we go through this, as I 

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learn more from suppliers. 
I've been talking to multiple 

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different suppliers. 
I'm trying to find options in 

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every outlet that I can. 
I'm trying to get pricing for 

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just getting an entire shipping 
container of cacao butter 

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shipped here directly from the 
farmers and going direct to the 

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source. 
I'm also looking at alternative 

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options for the base 
ingredients. 

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So right now obviously it's raw 
organic cacao butter. 

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I've been experimenting with 
beef tallow as an option. 

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So grass fed, grass finished 
beef tallow. 

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I've been playing with that for 
quite some time. 

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I've pretty well got a formula 
finalized now. 

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This whole cacao butter crisis 
is going to expedite me making 

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that formula a reality. 
So we're playing around with a 

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beef tallow option. 
I'm playing around with a bunch 

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of different options right now. 
So we've got the beef tallow as 

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a potential viable outlet. 
We've got, I'm going to try and 

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formulate some bricks using some
cacao butter, some beef tallow, 

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some maybe 100% beef tallow and 
no cacao butter. 

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I'm just playing around, seeing 
what sticks and seeing how 

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things are going to work out. 
I don't know what the future of 

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the cacao commodity system is 
going to be and nobody seems to 

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know. 
I've heard that it may stabilize

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by the end of the year. 
I've heard that it may take six 

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years. 
I have no idea what's going to 

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happen. 
We're just waiting for the 

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powers that be to shake out. 
And you know what? 

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See what those numbers are going
to look like. 

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As is true with everything from 
the get go, I'm going to be 

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completely honest and 
transparent with y'all. 

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I'm going to share exactly what 
I learned. 

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Anytime I find out something new
about the commodity market, I'm 

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going to let y'all know what I 
find out. 

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But in the meantime, this is the
only way that I know to hedge my

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bets and be as proactive as 
possible. 

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So decreasing the volume 
discount by 10% across the 

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board, finding alternative 
options for base ingredients, 

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whether it's beef tallow or 
something else, and then just 

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being honest and transparent 
with y'all. 

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So that is what we're looking 
like right now. 

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Scary times for me because it's 
like that is our primary 

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ingredient. 
That is what the the whole brick

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is based on is that raw organic 
cacao butter, which has all the 

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amazing properties that it does,
the high stearic acid content. 

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Beef tallow also has pretty high
stearic acid content. 

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So I think that would be a 
pretty viable option. 

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Now beef tallow is not going to 
be as resilient to the heat as 

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cacao butter. 
So depending on when we launch 

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those flavours during summer 
months, they may be more 

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susceptible to melting. 
So I've got to get all this 

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stuff figured out. 
I am losing a lot of sleep right

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now. 
Stress levels are pretty high. 

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But that is all for me to figure
out and for me to just do right 

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by y'all. 
So that's exactly what I'm going

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to do. 
I'm going to be resilient. 

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I'm going to figure this out. 
I'm trying to be very stoic 

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about this and control those 
things which I have control over

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and be at peace with those 
things that I do not. 

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I do not control the rainy 
season in Africa or the supply 

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and demand of the commodity 
market as a whole. 

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So I can't control those, but I 
can't control my communication 

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with y'all, the quality and 
integrity of the bricks. 

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On that note, a lot of these 
larger chocolate manufacturers 

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like the Nestles of the world 
are trying to, you know, 

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sidestep and use really low 
quality ingredients to fill this

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void. 
I have no intentions of using, 

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you know, soy products or canola
oil or anything like that in the

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bricks. 
So you don't have to worry about

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that. 
Anything that I do with regards 

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to the formulation will be up 
front and honest with y'all, and

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hopefully things just keep 
getting better, but that will be

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for time to tell. 
So as is true from the very 

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beginning and now I'm going 
forward and as always, I will be

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honest with y'all, I'll be 
transparent with y'all, I'll let

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you know what I learned and we 
will adjust course as necessary.

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But as it sits currently, the 
pricing has literally, you know,

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it's skyrocketed on cacao 
butter. 

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So as I learn more, I'll be sure
to keep you up to date. 

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These changes will go into 
effect on the 1st of May. 

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So currently you can get take 
advantage of your current 

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pricing. 
This drop of a 10% across the 

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discount volume, discounts 
across the board will go into 

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effect on the 1st of May of this
year. 

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So if you want to stock up 
before then, by all means do so.

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I will put out another e-mail 
newsletter before then to remind

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y'all just so everybody's in the
know and I will obviously be 

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very upfront and transparent 
with y'all with anything that I 

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learned going forward, but I 
hate this. 

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I apologize for this 
inconvenience. 

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This is outside of my hands, 
outside of my control, so I'm 

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just trying to control what I 
can. 

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So that is where things sit 
currently. 

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Hope y'all can be understanding 
of this. 

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If there's any questions, by all
means don't hesitate to reach 

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out and let me know. 
But truly, if you are 

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interested, just simply Google 
the cacao butter crisis right 

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now and you will see what is 
going on. 

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It is kind of crazy. 
It is very crazy. 

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I talked to somebody, a supplier
yesterday and he said that he's 

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been in business for 12 years, 
you know, within the cacao 

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market and he's never seen 
prices like this. 

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He said it was unprecedented and
they've literally 6X in the past

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00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,480
few months. 
So don't know how long this will

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happen. 
Don't know what's going to 

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happen but I'm doing the best I 
can with the resources I have 

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and being as honest and 
transparent in the process. 

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So thank you all so much for the
support. 

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I want to keep doing everything 
I can to make sure y'all keep 

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getting bricks and that is why 
we are doing these changes as it

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00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:09,040
sits currently. 
So thank you all so very much 

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and we will talk to you next 
time, yeah.