British chocolate brand continues to expand internationally

A “premium” British chocolatier today announces a trading update for the 13-week period (“Q2”) and the 26-week period (“H1”) ended 26 December 2021.

Hotel Chocolat’s revenue for Q2 increased 37 per cent compared to the prior year, and by 63 per cent compared to the equivalent period in FY20.

In the UK, the strong brand position and multichannel model enabled growth of 38 per cent. New customer acquisition campaigns resulted in 38 per cent more active customers. In the USA, the digital-led strategy delivered growth of 128 per cent, with active customer database growth of 119 per cent.

In Japan, our multi-channel joint venture achieved growth of 131 per cent. Since launching the VIP loyalty scheme 14 months ago, the database has grown by 1000 per cent to over 100,000 active customers.

Trading throughout the period has been encouraging and the Board now expects trading to be marginally ahead of management’s expectations for the current financial year.

Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and CEO, said: “These results demonstrate that the Hotel Chocolat brand is connecting with more customers, as we invest continually in new product creativity, driving growth across channels and categories, and in our ‘gentle farming’ initiative supporting cacao-farming families.

“All of our six growth drivers are behind the acceleration in sales: Velvetiser in-home drinks system, VIP Loyalty rewards, and Digital, whilst the USA, Global Wholesale, and the Japan joint venture are finding the formula for sustained growth, and our UK domestic market still has huge potential.

“Our Velvetiser in-home drinks system was a star performer during the period. The majority of our subscription customers are now coming from our popular hot chocolate and coffee machines and drinks.

Angus concluded: “We invested in refreshing our key chocolate gift ranges in the period and that resulted in an immediate and strong uplift in sales, particularly the higher price-point categories.

“We are incredibly grateful to both our new and long-established direct customers who support us and there’s been an exceptional team effort from the worldwide Hotel Chocolat family, who made these results happen, whilst always upholding our Hotel Chocolat values.”