All Hotel Chocolat articles – Page 2
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Prospect Analysis
Customer and marketing at Hotel Chocolat
Hotel Chocolat strives to make consumers feel part of a community, whether that’s through initiatives such as its Chocolate Tasting Club or through the merchandising which encourages discovery and connoisseurship. Growing its own cocoa gives it an authenticity that competitors who source on the open market lack.
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Prospect Analysis
Technology strategy at Hotel Chocolat
Hotel Chocolat’s priorities from an IT perspective centre on improving customer experience across all of its channels, with particular focus on responsive website design, an expansion of delivery options and improving customer loyalty.
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Prospect Analysis
Hotel Chocolat (Overview)
Hotel Chocolat is an upmarket chocolatier and cocoa grower that trades through around 125 locations in the UK and a handful of international outlets. More recently it has introduced branded cafés and restaurants, introduced tasting experiences, and beyond its retail operations it operates a luxury hotel in Saint Lucia on the site of its plantation.
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Prospect Analysis
Ecommerce at Hotel Chocolat
Hotel Chocolat is one of the few high street retailers to have moved from being a pureplay, when it ran its Chocolate Tasting Club online, to a significant bricks-and-mortar player. Recently it has refocused efforts on digital engagement – from digitising the VIP loyalty scheme and replatforming the tasting club, to introducing a gift delivery services and subscription services.
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Prospect Analysis
Hotel Chocolat (SWOT)
Hotel Chocolat is arguably the best-known brand among the new breed of upmarket chocolatiers. However, with the chocolate market being very seasonal, its moves to reduce the impact of this through new formats and to address the London bias through its digital offer, should help it to strengthen that position.
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Prospect Analysis
Hotel Chocolat (People)
The Hotel Chocolat business continues to be led by founders Angus Thirlwell as chief executive and Peter Harris as development director.
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Prospect Analysis
Hotel Chocolat (Financials)
Hotel Chocolat’s sales grew by more than a third (+37.4%) to £226.1m in the financial year ended 26 June 2022 (FY2021), bolstered by a rebound in store sales.
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Prospect Analysis
Hotel Chocolat (Strategy)
Hotel Chocolat’s strategy circulates around product innovation, loyalty and evolving the store experience, as well driving online sales and wholesale partnerships. Its mantra is “more cocoa, less sugar, for a healthier and more satisfying cocoa hit”.
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Prospect Analysis
Stores at Hotel Chocolat
Hotel Chocolat’s has always understood the need for its stores to deliver on the leisure and experience level and investment in this area have paid off in recent years. Its stores are well presented to reflect its luxury proposition and also offer in-store theatre such as tasting evenings and events to enhance the customer experience.
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Prospect Analysis
Supply chain at Hotel Chocolat
Sustainability is at the core of Hotel Chocolat’s vertically integrated business model, which is focused around the company-owned Rabot Estate cocoa plantation in Saint Lucia and the freehold Hadley Park manufacturing facility in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
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News
Hotel Chocolat upgrades full year trading expectations following strong Easter
Hotel Chocolat reported surging sales over its crucial Mother’s Day and Easter periods and said it expected trading for the year to be “significantly ahead of expectations”.
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Opinion
Angus Thirlwell: ‘Forget the caterpillars – retail needs collaboration, not conflict’
Three years ago, I was spitting chocolate feathers. Customers on social media began alerting me to a suspiciously similar range of chocolate slabs that had appeared in Waitrose.
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News
Waitrose and Hotel Chocolat strike new product partnership
Waitrose has struck a partnership with Hotel Chocolat to sell a selection of the retailer’s products in its supermarkets and online.
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Prospect Analysis
Hotel Chocolat (Outlook)
Hotel Chocolat seems well-placed for longer term growth as it capitalises on changing tastes of British consumers and as sustainability and social responsibility becomes increasingly important to consumers. It benefits from the accessible luxury positioning of its brand, with a very wide pricing architecture.
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Opinion
‘Thorntons’ plight lays bare risks of chasing revenue over relevance’
Britain’s high streets mourned the loss of another business this week. Thorntons became the latest name to shut up shop as the chocolatier said its 61 stores will not reopen when lockdown restrictions are lifted next month.
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News
Hotel Chocolat’s digital offer in strong position ahead of crucial Easter trading
Hotel Chocolat boss Angus Thirlwell says the retailer’s digital push during the pandemic has left it in a much stronger position heading into the crucial Easter trading period than last year.
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Analysis
How Dixons, Joules and Hotel Chocolat’s online prowess saved Christmas
Bricks-and-mortar retailers up and down the country had feared a Christmas washout as the UK veered in and out of lockdowns at the end of 2020.
