Sweet Christmas for Hotel Chocolat as revenue grows despite supply chain troubles
Hotel Chocolat has reported double digit revenue growth in the second half of last year.
In a trading update this morning Hotel Chocolat said revenue grew 11 per cent in the 13-week period to 29 December, while in the 26 weeks to the same date it was up 14 per cent.
The chocolatier said trading in the run-up to Christmas continued to be in line with expectations but flagged “inefficiencies in the supply chain” which increased costs “moderately”. The company said it would address this in 2020.
Hotel Chocolat opened two new locations in the US and three new joint-venture locations in Japan during the second half of 2019.
Co-founder and chief executive Angus Thirlwell said: “The USA and our joint venture in Japan are both delivering an encouraging performance. While much of 2019 was about getting started in these large new markets, 2020 will see us accelerate our supply-chain transformation.”
He added: “This focus will rebalance us from being a UK-based company operating from owned channels, to one more suitable for multi-channel multi-territory international supply.”
With an additional nine new locations in the UK, new openings contributed three percentage points of Hotel Chocolat’s 14 per cent total revenue growth.
It brings the total number of locations in the UK to 125. Thirlwell said: “We will continue to bring Hotel Chocolat to more locations in the UK where the deals are appropriate.”
Hotel Chocolat dipped into the milk-alternative market with the launch of its vegan Nutmilk, which the company said had been five years in the making.
Shares were down around two per cent to 425p in morning trading.