Chocs away! Shops filled with tasty treats

My name is John Kimble and I am director and co-founder of Kimble’s Chocolates. We sell chocolates! We also have a large day time café. We have three premises in Glasgow. Our main store is at the St Enoch Centre where we occupy a 3,500-square foot unit which includes a large café, and we retail chocolates in Princes Square and in the Buchanan Galleries.

Being located in shopping centres means we have access to marketing, security and management support which is important as we are essentially a small family business. We opened a small chocolate shop in the St Enoch Centre which was a unit specifically built to encourage small businesses to be part of a large centre with a view to growing their business onto a larger premises, which is

exactly what happened to us. I studied hotel and catering management at the Glasgow College of Food Technology, now the City of Glasgow College. I started my career in hospitality with House of Fraser, eventually becoming the assistant catering controller. I then moved to the Edinburgh Woollen Mills as their UK Catering Controller with responsibil- ity for 29 stores. From there I worked with Bradford’s the bakers before starting up on my own, or should I say with my wife. Always try to keep that fire in your belly and a determination to succeed despite what hurdles are put your way, and there are plenty of them! It’s not easy to cope when things get tough, and it’s true that ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’. My wife Joyce and my son Chris work alongside me and we are all there to support each other which is vital to our sanity. We opened our first shop in December, 2002. Yes. Our initial investment into the company was funded by our own savings. It was a very small shop so we didn’t need any more financial help at that point. The Royal Bank of Scotland was and still is our bank and they were there to help and guide us. We also contacted Small Business Gateway which helped us set up a limited company and prepare a business plan. We also went to all their business start-up classes which gave us confidence . A difficult one because I think Joyce and I wish we had started our own business long before 2002, but we had a young family, I had a good job and life was pretty settled. More shops, maybe.

Our son is the future of the business so you had better ask him. Without a doubt, the Federation of Small Businesses who have been invaluable, always at the end of the phone when we need help. John Kimble kimble@ilovekimbles.co.uk Telephone: 0141 249 9955