Yorkshire Hotel Chocolat store is star performer over Christmas

Hotel Chocolat's co-founder Angus Thirlwell has seen great success by reducing sugar in the group's recipes

Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and CEO, said: “The Leeds store was our best performer. It’s all the more impressive bearing in mind a competitor (Lindt) opened around the corner, but that didn’t stop sales.

“The people of Yorkshire are prepared to pay for quality. Yorkshire is a very affluent county and all our stores do really well there.”

Hotel Chocolat is on the hunt for more shops in the region following the success of its new stores in market towns. It already has stores in Leeds, York, Harrogate, Sheffield, Meadowhall, a restaurant in Leeds and a cafe in York.

The firm said that more customers visited its stores in the run up to Christmas and many customers traded up to buy more expensive products.

The group said total revenue rose 16 per cent in the 13 weeks to December 25, driven by increased footfall and items per basket.

“We’ve traded very positively, driven by skillful product development” said Mr Thirlwell.

“Our job is to connect Hotel Chocolat with as many gift solutions as possible. We didn’t put prices up - we held them.”

Best sellers over the festive period included gift hampers, where sales rose 80 per cent.

“The cost of a hamper is £50 to £500. We were delighted with sales,” said Mr Thirlwell.

The group has launched a new website which offers a bespoke service so customers can choose exactly what goes into the hamper.

Another bestseller was the Yule Log, which sold out three times and had to be remade to meet customer demand.

“We saw a bigger footfall in existing stores. We offer aspirational luxury and our prices start at £2,” said Mr Thirlwell.

The new website offers a better service on smartphones and tablets, a bespoke “gift creator” service for delivered gifts and better integration of the tasting club subscription service.

The firm opened 10 new stores during the last six months of 2016 and now has 90 stores in the UK. Seven of the new stores included a hot drinks offer of Hot Chocolat, coffee-chocolate and light cocoa infusions.

The group said that trading since December is in line with management’s expectations.

Analyst Wayne Brown at Liberum said: “Hotel Chocolat is a clear Christmas winner. It has delivered a strong trading update, a strengthening from the last time we heard from the group at the time of its prelims. Momentum across all areas of the group is strong and with the website having recently been re-launched and double the number of stores having opened pre-Christmas than we expected for the full-year, bodes well for our full year expectations.

The group expects to announce half year results on February 22.

Mr Thirlwell said: “Being a UK manufacturer gave us the flexibility to maintain good stock availability right up to the end of the season. I would like to thank the whole team for their energy, enthusiasm and tireless commitment to delivering on our plans.”