Hotel Chocolat celebrates bumper Christmas trading

The firm said Yorkshire has been one of its top performing regions during the lockdown with strong demand for online sales across the region.

Angus Thirlwell, Hotel Chocolat’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “We’re servicing Yorkshire through our online channel.

“We are seeing terrific loyalty and a lot of new customers from the Yorkshire area. Yorkshire is one of our top performing regions in the whole of the UK.

“If you work well with a physical location, say York, you also resonate well online. It’s the same brand, the same product range and the same service. It’s just a different doorway to walk through. One is real and one is virtual.”

The firm, which has sites across Yorkshire, said revenue jumped 19 per cent in the 13 weeks to December 27 and by 11 per cent in the 26 weeks to December 27.

Hotel Chocolat said it has used its multichannel model to respond to strong demand from its loyal, direct customer base.

Trading since December has been in line with management’s expectations, despite much higher investment in the acceleration of digital and international growth plans, and the ongoing pandemic-related response costs.

Mr Thirlwell said the group is keen to reopen its stores once lockdown ends. Before the latest lockdown, he said the York designer outlet was “storming ahead” as more people opted to travel by car during the coronavirus crisis.

The group also reported strong trading in Yorkshire market towns as more people worked from home and shopped locally. Hotel Chocolat’s biggest location in the UK is in Leeds city centre

“We can’t wait to get back open again,” said Mr Thirlwell.

“We think we will open in March some time. Potentially we could reopen at the end of February. We may open up in some test locations to work our way back in. We won’t wait a moment longer than we have to. That’s for sure.”

Mr Thirlwell said he expects to see strong demand for Hotel Chocolat’s hot chocolate in 2021.

“Our Velvetiser hot chocolate making system has really hit the spot with lots of families,” he said.

“We’ve got a load of new recipes and flavours we’re bringing in in 2021.

“We have a roasted peanut and chocolate drinking chocolate, which is really delicious. We also have a strawberries and cream drinking chocolate, using our cocoa butter rich white chocolate and freeze dried strawberries.”

Analyst Wayne Brown at Liberum issued a ‘buy’ recommendation on Hotel Chocolat’s shares after what he said was “another impressive performance”.

He said: “Digital has strengthened further, more than offsetting temporary store closures, reflecting the strength of the brand, true operational agility and broadening access by customers which bodes extremely well for the future.

“The foundations continue to be laid for international expansion, with the group only just at the beginning of tapping into the US and Japan – a combined addressable market size of over £32bn, some six times that of the UK.”