Profits and revenues rise at Hotel Chocolat

The firm is set to unveil four new stores in Yorkshire over the coming months, including new stores in York, Halifax and Huddersfield. It has identified the county as being a prime target.

Hotel Chocolat said revenue was up 15 per cent to £71.7m for the 26 weeks ended December 31, 2017. Pre-tax profit was up 15 per cent to £12.9m.

Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and CEO of Hotel Chocolat, said: “This has been another period of strong progress for Hotel Chocolat with growth in both sales and profits.

“The critical Christmas period was again successful, helped by further improvements in availability, our best ever seasonal range and the extension of our one-stop gift solutions range.

“We have exciting plans in place for the key spring seasons of Mother’s Day and Easter, and have recently launched a new cacao beauty range and a weekly subscription called Mbox. We are confident of further progress during the year.

“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.”