Copyright © 2016. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

As she digests her 18th straight loss to Serena Williams which sent her out of the Australian Open quarter-finals, Maria Sharapova at least can turn to solace in her business career, a sideline which – along with a string of blue-ribbon endorsements – makes her the highest-paid woman in all of sport.

The 28-year-old’s Sugarpova candy company is moving from strength to strength, with plans to launch a chocolate line in the next few months. The Russian began the company in 2012 by tossing in $500,000 as seed money.

The company, which is managed professionally with Sharapova in on all key decisions, is said to have been working for more than a year to find the proper sourcing for what will be a high-end and expensive product to go along with the popular gummy candies already in the product lineup.

The hope is to treble sales to $20 million per annum at a premium $5 per bag in a sweets market worth an estimated $28 billion per year.

“We’re building for when her career is over,” the player’s manager Max Eisenbud told Forbes at the Australian Open. “The plan is to turn Sugarpova into a lifestyle brand,” which may also sell home goods, sleep and loungewear.”

Sugarpova has had major marketing success with pop-up shops at several grand slam cities, with Sharapova making personal appearance and building the brand as part of the effort which sold a reported 15 million bags of candy in 2015. Officials expect chocolate Sugarpova to hit the market prior to the French Open start in May.

Copyright © 2016. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.