Your name in chocolate: corporate holiday gifts of chocolate, cheese, preserves, pickles and fish-shaped candy.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: AROUND INDIANA

"WE DID SOME RESEARCH and found that food gifts are the No. 1 gifts in the corporate world," says Tim Beere. "People don't need more things. This is a treat, and they can enjoy it and be done with it."

Beere should know, because corporate gift recipients by the thousand enjoy the treats created by DeBrand Fine Chocolates, the Fort Wayne chocolate maker he owns with his wife, Cathy Brand, who started making chocolates at age 8. DeBrand has corporate clients across the country, Beere says. "The holidays are the biggest time, but many companies do things throughout the year."

DeBrand creates high-end chocolates, and is well-known for its creations molded in shapes that indicate the flavor on the inside--cherry, pecan, almond, apricot, orange, strawberry, etc. Especially popular among corporate gift-givers are its custom-made logo chocolates formed with corporate logos. "We've done more than a thousand different logos in chocolate," Beere says.

Some companies have been sending DeBrand chocolates to clients for years. Beere says a regular customer decided one year to do something different. "The next year they were the first one to call us," he says. "They got complaints from people who looked forward to the chocolates."

Hoosier manufacturers offer a wide variety of choices for corporate food gifts. For example, the Sechler family has for generations been making and selling pickles of all kinds, and does a decent business in holiday gifts, says David Sechler, president of Ralph Sechler & Son Inc. in St. Joe. "The candied sweet items are especially popular."

Lots of pickle makers produce good dill pickles, he says, but few can match the variety of sweet pickles that Sechler makes. The menu boasts 39 flavors, including candied sweet gherkins, jalapeno sweet relish, sweet...