Retailer Hotel Chocolat has seen “encouraging early signs” as their oversea start-ups see a 7% rise in half year profits with shares rising 5%.
The chocolatier posted profits of £13.8m for the six months to 30 December, sale leaped to £80.7m by 13% with the launch of 14 new stores across the UK.
Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and chief executive of Hotel Chocolat, said: “Growth in the UK continued to deliver improvements in profitability, which have enabled us to invest in the launch of two new start-ups in New York and Tokyo, both of which are showing encouraging early signs in terms of customer response and the initial store sales performance.”
He added: “Recent trading, including the Valentine’s period, is in line with the board’s expectations and we continue to make good progress against our key strategic objectives of opening more stores, improving our digital capability and increasing our production capacity whilst testing and learning in two large new territories.”
Jonathan Pritchard, an Analyst at Peel Hunt said, “We expect continued excellence from the core business but the game-changer could be the overseas potential.”
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