Hotel Chocolat, the British chocolatier, on Wednesday reported a 15 per cent rise in first half revenue and profit as it expanded its reach across retail, digital and corporate channels.
The firm, which listed its shares in 2016, said it made a pretax profit of £12.9m on revenue of £71.7m and would pay an interim dividend of 0.6 pence.
Hotel Chocolat said recent trading, including the Valentine’s period, was in line with the board’s expectations.
“We continue to make good progress against our three key strategic objectives of opening more stores, improving our digital capability and increasing our production capacity,” said co-founder and chief Executive Angus Thirlwell.
Operational highlights in the first half included ten new store openings, contributing 5 per cent to group sales growth, and third party wholesale deals with retailers including Amazon and Ocado.
Shares in Hotel Chocolat, up 26 per cent over the last year, closed Tuesday at 320 pence, valuing the business at £364m.
The chocolatier launched a weekly chocolate subscription for customers this month.
Reuters
