Hotel Chocolat tastes sweet success of quitting London
How Hotel Chocolat has performed since being acquired by Mars for more than £500m in July 2023 has been revealed for the first time.
The Hertfordshire-headquartered business quit the London Stock Exchange after being taken over in a £534m deal.
The deal, which at the time represented a 169.8 per cent premium on its 139p share price, came after a series of profit warnings as well as falling revenue and its stock.
Since going private, Hotel Chocolat has kept quiet on how it has been performing financially – until now.
Now being required to file its accounts with Companies House, Hotel Chocolat has published its performance for the 78-weeks to the end of 2024.
Hotel Chocolate opening new stores
For the period, Hotel Chocolat’s revenue totalled £356m while it also made a pre-tax profit of £13.3m.
In its previous financial period, the 12 months to 2 July, 2023, Hotel Chocolat’s revenue was £204.5m and it made a pre-tax loss of £6.9m.
Its latest revenue figure was boosted by the longer trading period which included two Christmas seasons.
During the period, Hotel Chocolat opened 23 new stores and increased its average headcount from 2,339 to 2,518.
The company said it intended to open 25 new stores in 2025.
Since 30 June, 2024, the US business was hived out and is no longer part of the UK group of companies.
It remains part of the Mars group and continues to be managed by the Hotel Chocolat executive leadership team.
The brand also excited the Japan market “following trade headwinds and a repositioning of the strategic focus both geographically and from a channel perspective”.
It added: “The group continues to focus on growing its product portfolio both with range extension and product developments, and the roll out of cafes within its existing and new store estate.”