British Luxury Brand Hotel Chocolat Plans to Open 50 New Shops in the UK

After enjoying its best Christmas shop sales since it was founded nearly 20 years ago. Despite recession fears and a cost of living crisis, it is even considering a return to the US following a 10 per cent increase in annual store sales over Christmas. It withdrew from the US last year because of heavy losses. “Retail is very much back,” said co-founder and chief executive Angus Thirlwell. “When people step into a Hotel Chocolat, there is a sense of discovery, excitement. That sensorial element is not to be understated.” “We saw 10 per cent like for like store growth in the nine week key Christmas period,” said Thirlwell. “We’re looking at retail in the UK as a model and thinking this is looking pretty good for us.” Hotel Chocolat was founded as an online-only retailer in 2004, but now has 125 outlets in the UK. It said it planned to open 50 new stores in the next three to five years. The company said roughly 60 per cent of its sales in the 26 week period were in store, and 40 per cent online. During the period, it sold 250,000 “velvetisers”, the drinking chocolate equivalent of a Nespresso machine, and said its mince pie flavour of hot chocolate was a top performer. Thirlwell said that Hotel Chocolat performed strongly in the 2008 recession because customers appreciated that its products were high quality as well as value for money. Hotel Chocolat shares fell last year when it announced that it was closing all of its US stores and placing its Japanese joint venture into civil rehabilitation protection. In its 2022 annual report, it reported a loss because of a £30.4mn impairment on its international business. “Nobody gets it right first time trying to grow internationally. We anticipate making some announcements in the near future,” said Thirlwell, when asked whether the company would make another attempt to expand abroad. Analysts at Liberum said the results highlight “the appeal of the brand and its diverse product range”, predicting that “store recovery should provide further margin expansion” and that efficiency savings could be found centrally. The company said it was in line to meet the market expectations for full year sales of £213mn and pre-tax profits of £8mn.