IN TIMES OF CRISIS, PEOPLE OFTEN TURN TO CHOCOLATE

HeLeN PAttiNSoN, 49, launched luxury chocolate brand montezuma’s in 2000, and won a NatWest everywoman Award in 2013. She lives in Chichester with her husband, Simon, and three daughters, aged 17, 13 and ten.

FOr a maker and seller of luxury chocolate, the coronavirus emergency could hardly have come at a worse time.

‘To close our shops two weeks before easter felt pretty disastrous,’ says helen Pattinson, co-founder of Montezuma’s, which has six stores across the country and, until now, had plans to open a further three this summer.

helen and simon, both former lawyers, started the company 20 years ago after a lifechanging trip to see cocoa plantations in south America. Before March, 2020 was shaping up to be a great year.

‘We re-launched the whole brand in January,’ says helen. ‘it was a huge refresh, which had taken about a year to come to fruition. every piece of our packaging is now recyclable, biodegradeable or compostable.

‘We also opened another shop in norwich and, after careful planning, were looking forward to a really nice phase of growth.

‘And then the bomb of the virus was thrown into it all. no one could have predicted it.’

The Pattinson family are self-isolating very strictly because simon has a lung condition that puts him at higher risk.

helen oversaw the handling of the company’s easter crisis largely over the phone, juggling it with home-schooling.

‘in some ways we’ve been lucky,’ she says. ‘We’d updated the website two weeks before lockdown, so it was fit and ready for the huge upsurge we then saw online. That side of the business instantly grew about tenfold.’

Production in the Montezuma’s factory was halted — 102 of the 160 staff were furloughed — and stock was rescued from shops. senior managers rolled up their sleeves to meet the boom in online orders (and even to clean the office on a rota).

‘We kept staff safe by using the empty factory as additional packing space,’ says helen. ‘inevitably there were delays in getting orders out, but customers were really understanding. Most were just grateful to get an egg at all.’

You can still buy Montezuma’s chocolate in sainsbury’s and Waitrose, and post-easter sales have held up well. At times of crisis, it seems, hard-pressed consumers often turn to smaller luxuries, such as a chocolate bar.

‘We’ve definitely benefited from that rule in the past,’ says helen. ‘People didn’t stop buying chocolate during the financial crisis of 2008, either. We’ll be discussing new products soon. it seems to be business as usual in that respect, which is very reassuring.’