The boss of Hotel Chocolat has said all 125 stores will reopen once Covid-19 restrictions ease and there are no plans to shut any permanently.
Chief executive Angus Thirlwell said while he expected a slowdown in business at city centre and travel locations, the chocolate retailer’s stores could see a boost from home workers working more flexibly in future.
He said: “Some locations when we were allowed to reopen during the summer – mass transit and office-based city centre stores – were down, but the counterpoint is community based high streets had a new lease of life with some up on the previous year.
“More office-based and commuter locations could result in lower footfall, but if people are going in two or three days a week, we expect to become destinations shoppers seek out.”
The comments came as Hotel Chocolat, whose UK-wide retailing branch network includes shops in Aberdeen and Inverness, revealed figures suggesting many UK consumers have turned to sweet treats to help get them through the pandemic.
Total sales rose by 11% to £101.9 million in the six months to December 27 2020, compared with the first half of last year. Pre-tax profits grew by 3% to £15.5m, from £15m in the first six months of the year.
Strong online growth helped the company learn more about its customers and target products at them accordingly.
UK sales grew 12%, with online growth more than offsetting the reduction in stores being closed during Covid-19 lockdowns and tier restrictions during the autumn and winter months.
More than half of UK sales in the period came through online orders and the number of UK customers grew by 38%.
Growth was also strong in the smaller markets of the US and Japan – the latter saw 11 stores opened, bringing the total to 19.
Mr Thirlwell said the US and Japanese businesses could be used as regional sales hubs, with potential to expand to other nearby locations including Canada in North America, alongside China and Singapore in the Far East.
Hotel Chocolat was launched by Mr Thirlwell and fellow-entrepreneur Peter Harris in 2004, with a first shop in north London.
Today, the company has 103 stores, as well as cafes, restaurants and chocolate-making schools. It also owns and runs a hotel on the site of its own cocoa plantation on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.
Looking back on the period covered by the company’s latest results, Mr Thirlwell said: “The Hotel Chocolat brand stayed strong during a difficult period for all of us.
“We certainly kept the chocolate flowing, thanks to our online capabilities and multi-channel expertise. We recorded superb results in the UK, US and Japan despite Covid-19 restrictions affecting all our physical locations.
“We achieved sales growth during those periods when all UK physical locations were closed, demonstrating the brand’s appeal to our loyal customers and flexible business model.
“Databases of active customers grew substantially in all three markets, underpinning our confidence of growth in the years to come.
“We look forward to building the Hotel Chocolat brand further as we move closer to our goal of becoming the leading global direct-to-consumer premium chocolate brand.”
