3 minute read - 18th July 2024
Hotel Chocolat to invest £10m expanding Royston factory
Hotel Chocolat is investing £10m to expand its manufacturing plant at Royston in Hertfordshire, creating 50 new jobs. The premium chocolatier said the expansion “underlined its commitment to the British manufacturing industry” as the firm also gets set for its biggest-ever UK store opening roll out.
Hotel Chocolat will launch 25 new stores across the UK next year in cities such as Belfast and Glasgow and market towns including Ilkley and Morpeth, alongside significantly upsizing in existing localities such as Nottingham and Chichester. This creation of Hotel Chocolat’s new high street homes will generate 200 new roles.
The new locations will open throughout 2025, including a new store in Manchester which will be Hotel Chocolat’s biggest-ever outlet, with over 9,000 square feet across three floors.
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Hotel Chocolat is to invest £10m in expanding its manufacturing plant in Royston, creating 50 new jobs at the site / Picture: Hotel Chocolat
Angus Thirlwell, Hotel Chocolat’s CEO and co-founder, said: “The UK is the home of the Hotel Chocolat brand and we’re committed to investing in the UK high street and British manufacturing. Demand for our products is greater than ever and we’re opening stores across the UK allowing us to bring our “more cocoa, less sugar” products to those that love them and bringing our incredible brand experience to life.
“When we agreed to be majority-acquired by Mars, our cultural values were aligned. We stated that there would be an unwavering commitment to our home in the UK both on the high street and investing in a manufacturing excellence in Britain. Today’s announcement underlines that commitment and shows that Hotel Chocolat is one of Britain’s best loved brands.”
Hotel Chocolat continues to invest in its ethical and sustainability agenda, driving a better way for cacao farming with its Gentle Farming program (now in its third year). The initiative provides 2,500 farmers in Ghana with on-farm support with pruning, provision of fast-growing shade tree saplings and fertiliser application, alongside sharing knowledge to improve cacao yield whilst encouraging soil health and biodiversity on farms. Hotel Chocolat also pays a cash premium for the cacao, above the farmgate price, direct to the farmer. To encourage the next generation of cacao farmers, it also runs a young farmers programme supporting them with cacao seedlings, shade trees and under-planting food or cash crops as well as education on farming methods and on-farm support.
“Our ongoing support to cacao farmers to employ methods that are both rewarding for them and their families and that have a positive impact on biodiversity and soil health is incredibly important to us,” Thirlwell said. “We need to ensure the longevity of this industry and the way to do that is to create a sustainable model that benefits farmers and nature. We learned the direct way about this by operating our own cacao farm in Saint Lucia for the last 17 years, all the time experimenting to find a better way.”
In an industry first, Hotel Chocolat launched the Better Way Bar in October 2023. Sold through its retail stores and online, all sales revenue from the bars (ex VAT) go to support gentle farming initiatives in both Ghana and Saint Lucia where Hotel Chocolat has its own organic cacao farm and Island Growers program. The bar has been well supported by customers with over 100,000 sold since launch. The Better Way Bar is made with cacao grown both in Ghana and Saint Lucia to emphasise the gentle farming initiatives.
