Hotel Chocolat hires 130 staff in half year
HOTEL CHOCOLAT yesterday revealed that it created 130 jobs over the last half year, as it delivered “superb” results in the UK, US and Japan despite the pandemic.
Hotel Chocolat Group has released its interim results for the 26 weeks ended December 27, 2020. Over the period, revenue rose by 11 per cent to £101.9m and profit before tax increased by three per cent to £15.5m.
The company said the strong sales growth reflected the growing brand appeal in the UK, US and Japan.
UK sales grew by 12 per cent, driven by increased multichannel flexibility, with online growth more than offsetting the reduction in physical retail sales caused by closures during lockdown and Tier 4 restrictions.
The UK customer database grew by 38 per cent, as it added 0.6m active members.
Hotel Chocolat said it had also made continued progress on sustainable business goals, which included the development of a new ‘gentle farming’ approach.
Investments in people created more than 130 jobs and the proportion of recyclable packaging rose to 93 per cent.
Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and chief executive of Hotel Chocolat, said: “The Hotel Chocolat brand stayed strong during a difficult period for all of us. We certainly kept the chocolate flowing thanks to our online capabilities and multichannel expertise.
“We recorded superb results in the UK, US and Japan despite Covid-19 restrictions affecting all our physical locations. We achieved sales growth during those periods when all UK physical locations were closed, demonstrating the brand’s appeal to our loyal customers.”