Hotel Chocolat full-year sales climb driven by ‘innovation’

The confectionary specialist posted a 14% uplift in sales year on year to £132m in the 52 weeks to June 30 in its full-year trading update.

The retailer said it expected profits for the year to be in line with market expectations.

Hotel Chocolat, which recorded a 7% uplift in interim pre-tax profit to £13.8m in February, opened 16 new stores during the year, including two in the US, which collectively contributed 5% to overall group sales.

The retailer also entered into a joint venture in Japan during the financial period resulting in two store openings in Tokyo.

Chief executive Angus Thirlwell said: “I’m really pleased with our performance this year, delivering strong growth across all parts of the Hotel Chocolat multichannel, direct-to-consumer model. New activities in the year included openings in the US and Japan; the launch of the Velvetiser – our in-home drinking chocolate system; and the introduction of our VIPMe rewards card scheme, all of which present substantial future growth opportunities.

“Our pace of innovation is relentless. In our drinks and ices range we are seeing the most prolific new product Instagramming in our history, with billionaire’s sundaes, choc shakes and vegan chocolate-dipped lollies generating lots of excitement.”

The board will report on its preliminary results on September 24.

Landlord have started to ’wise up to what’s going on’

Speaking to Retail Week, Hotel Chocolat boss Angus Thirlwell said the retailer is seeing “quite a few really nice opportunities” in the current UK retail property market and put this down to the fact that landlords have “started to wise up to what’s going on”. 

Thirlwell said that property rents are dropping and landlords are recognising the need for more flexible lease lengths and break clauses in order to attract retailers to taking space. 

”In the last financial year we went into 14 new locations in the UK, and that’s a function of the deals being down out there. We certainly know there are plenty of locations where we want to be, but we’re pretty demanding,” he said.

“Rents are too high, rates are too high and service charges are being set too high as well. What we’re seeing at the moment is those are dropping, which they needed to do and we also need the ability to be a bit more flexible: so shorter leases, break options, and those are becoming the norm.”

Hotel Chocolat’s boss said that the retailer was also being offered more “support” from landlords on things like fit-out costs for units. 

”We’re seeing support from landlords. If you’re coming into a space and investing lots of money making a space look amazing, it’s kind of expected you get some support from the landlord to get started on that and view it as a joint effort, rather than just down to the brand itself. Clearly, if the space can be made to work, the relationship can go on for decades.”