From Scratch to Scale: How Ranger Chocolate Built a Portland Institution
A bean-to-bar chocolate maker, a city with deep roots in supporting its makers, and the program that helped turn a passion project into a nationally recognized brand.
Ranger Chocolate, Founder & CEO: George Domurot
Ask George Domurot why he founded Ranger Chocolate Co., and the answer goes back further than 2013. It goes back to a butcher grandfather with an ice cream parlor. A grandmother who ran a cooking school. Aunts who made candy. A childhood spent learning, hands-on, that mustard and mayonnaise and just about everything else on the grocery store shelf could be made from scratch — if you cared enough to figure it out.
"I learned how to make things from scratch from a young age," George says. "So later in life, when I was going to get into food and beverage, I wanted to pick something that I really was passionate about — and that was chocolate."
That passion came with a refusal to take shortcuts. When George decided to launch Ranger — named for his niece, a National Park Service forest ranger — he wasn't interested in buying chocolate off a shelf and rebranding it. He wanted to make it from the bean. So he flew to Peru, traveled into the Morropón Province, and worked directly with farmers to source what would become Ranger's signature Salitral cacao. The bean-to-bar process he taught himself from there is still the foundation of every product they make.
A city with a big heart
Ask George why Ranger exists in Portland, and the answer is just as direct: it couldn't exist anywhere else.
"It's my home. I love Portland," he says. "I think it's got a city with a big heart. The community, the people who live here, are all about supporting each other — sometimes to our own detriment. Our heart is so big, and we're always trying to help the community and the people that live here."
That spirit, he says, isn't a trend that arrived with the recent rise of "buy local" messaging nationally. "That's not new to us here in Portland. That's part of Portland. It's been here forever. It's decades old. That's part of the DNA of the city and the community."
For makers in food, beverage, and beyond, that DNA translates into tangible support. Local retailers like New Seasons, Market of Choice, and The Meadow helped Ranger grow on the shelf. Collaborators showed up. Chef Gregory Gourdet partnered with Ranger on a passion fruit bar that went on to win Silver and Best in Category at the 2025 International Chocolate Awards. Jacobsen Salt Co. — Ranger's neighbors in the Central Eastside — supplied the finishing salt for the Oregon Sea Salt bar, one of Ranger's most beloved products.
"If you have an idea and you work on it, it will be supported by the community," George says. "Friends and family in the city and the community really came around me to create Ranger."
The challenges no one warns you about
Passion gets a business started. Sustaining one — and growing it — is a different kind of work entirely.
"It is hard. It is so hard. It's harder than I could have ever imagined," George admits. "There's always a challenge right around the corner. You don't know it, but it's going to be there."
He's quick to point out that the public narrative around sustainability often misses what's actually hardest about scaling. "People always think about sustainability and where do you get your ingredients, which is absolutely core to who we are. But for me as a business owner trying to create a sustainable model, that's really even more difficult. How do you expand, how do you grow, how do you staff, how do you pay for that staff?"
Going from a small operation to a team of ten, twenty, thirty, forty employees changes everything. "The complexities of how you do that — it's just exponentially changing around every corner."
That's where George says many of his peers in the F&B industry get stuck. Not because help doesn't exist, but because they don't know it does.
"We wouldn't have gotten here without them"
"People don't know about Business Oregon. They don't know about Prosper Portland. Who are these groups? What do they do?" George says. "I'm always surprised that even my peers in the F&B industry, they're not plugged in. For us to get where we are today, we wouldn't have gotten here without the support of Prosper Portland."
For Ranger, that support has been concrete and specific. When the company rebuilt its operation in Portland's Central Eastside Industrial District — moving into the historic Olympic Mills Building — Prosper Portland connected the project to economic development programs aligned with that part of the city. Working capital loans. Grants. Equipment financing. Sessions where peers gather to talk through the real pressures of running an F&B business. Help navigating the tax complexity that comes with investing in equipment and assets. Introductions to banks, contractors, and the right people for the right problem.
"They not only did the lip service part, they actually were right there with me along all those things — from working capital to grants," George says. "They were really special."
He's also clear about what working with Prosper Portland actually looks like, because it's not what people assume. "You pick up the phone and call Prosper Portland and say who you are and what you're trying to do. They will connect you to a person on the inside who will follow up with you for real, create that relationship with you, and carry that forward. They're very accessible."
For George, that relational quality is the whole point. "They're an extension of the city. They're really important to the forward momentum we've been able to achieve."
What's next
That forward momentum is showing up everywhere right now. In 2025, Ranger took home Gold and Best in Category at the International Chocolate Awards for its Salted Caramel, alongside Silver wins for its Salitral and Passion Fruit bars. Ranger has invested heavily in its ability to scale, with a focus on quality, and is looking at bringing the brand beyond the Pacific Northwest.
And that historic Olympic Mills Building Prosper Portland helped Ranger grow into? It's now home to the Portland Craft Chocolate Festival, an annual celebration George founded in 2025 to bring together the region's bean-to-bar makers under one roof. The inaugural event drew nearly 2,000 attendees and more than 30 exhibitors from across the Pacific Northwest, with lines around the block before doors opened and a sold-out VIP kickoff. Prosper Portland was a community partner for the inaugural event, and the festival returns to Olympic Mills October 2–4, 2026, with an expanded footprint.
"This is a really special place with a big heart," George says. "If you're a creative person trying to build a business or concept, I'm not sure where else other than Portland would be the best place to be."
Ranger Chocolate Co. is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker founded in Portland in 2013. Learn more about Prosper Portland's Food & Beverage Manufacturing program and how we support businesses at every stage of growth.
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