Hotel Chocolat shrugs off market woes as profits climb

Pre-tax profit rose 15% to £12.9m while revenues climbed 15% to £71.7m during the 26 weeks to December 31, 2017.

Five percentage points of its sales growth were attributed to new store openings.

The high-end chocolatier said that it enjoyed “strong ” growth across its retail, digital and wholesale channels.

Hotel Chocolat said online sales advanced 16% during the period, with its new supply contracts to etailers including Amazon and Ocado generating six percentage points of that growth.

The business, which increased its manufacturing capacity by 25% over the period, also opened 10 new stores during the six months.

It highlighted the variety of formats it has opened, including a flagship store in Oxford Westgate, its first ever retail park location at Teesside and its second designer outlet at Clarks Village.

It said that the initial results gave it “confidence that the pipeline of potential new sites is greater than previously expected”.

Hotel Chocolat co-founder and chief executive Angus Thirlwell said: “The critical Christmas period was again successful, helped by further improvements in availability… and the extension of our one-stop gift solutions range.

“Recent trading, including the Valentine’s period, is in line with the board’s expectations and we continue to make good progress against our three key strategic objectives of opening more stores, improving our digital capability and increasing our production capacity.”