Hotel Chocolat ends year on sweet note following launch of vegan product

A London-based confectioner has announced that it saw a 14 per cent revenue growth in the final weeks of 2019 compared to the previous year.

Hotel Chocolat Group, headquartered in London, launched a new 100 per cent vegan product, Nutmilk, during the 26-week period, which it said has been a “hit”.

During the period, the company also opened nine new locations in the UK, as well as two in the US and three joint-venture locations in Japan.

The new openings contributed three percentage points to the total growth in revenue.

Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and chief executive officer, said: “This was another strong performance from Hotel Chocolat.

“In our domestic UK market, we grew our VIP-Me member base to over 1.1m active members, as well as driving strong organic growth from our existing physical locations.

“We will continue to bring Hotel Chocolat to more locations in the UK where the deals are appropriate.

“The USA and our joint venture in Japan are both delivering an encouraging performance, growing to four and five locations respectively by the end of period.

“While much of 2019 was about getting started in these large new markets, 2020 will see us accelerate our supply-chain transformation.

“This focus will rebalance us from being a UK-based company operating from owned channels, to one more suitable for multi-channel multi-territory international supply.

“We also launched Nutmilk, our new ‘milk’ chocolate which just happens to be 100 per cent vegan. It’s been five years in the making and is an immediate hit.”