Hotel Chocolat which has posted a pre-tax loss of £6.9 million loss along with falling sales of £204.5m for the year to July ’23, said that it is “on the front foot” ahead of Christmas ’23 with strong trading at its new shops. It says it has made significant progress from its efforts to improve performance.
Revenues from its UK stores was up by 14 per cent for the 13 weeks to October 2, with like-for-like growth of 13 per cent. It had opened four new stores since the financial year began in July, as part of a dozen scheduled openings, with its latest shops outperforming expectations. The business had also seen strong improvement in its margins which resulted from reduced discounting and price rises.
Angus Thirlwell, Hotel Chocolat co-founder and chief executive, said: “Hotel Chocolat is on the front foot again. The hard, foundational work we put in last year is now starting to deliver the results for us. Our new store format is trading well above our expectations, with 12 new locations planned to open in the next year.
“Our ongoing stores continue to perform strongly, benefiting from a raft of exciting new products, the resumption of in-store tasting and our unique Love Match offer which reflects human individuality to closely match it across our Hotel Chocolat range. Trading in our railway station stores has rebounded as traveller numbers have increased.”.
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