Hotel Chocolat’s annual revenue has dropped by a significant margin due to weakening online and international sales.
The chocolatier saw sales decline by 10% to £204.5m, with UK revenues falling 8% and a 24% drop in sales from online and wholesale.
At the same time, it’s pre-tax profit of £21.7m fell by £800,000 to £20.9m in the 53 weeks to 2 July 2023.
However, UK store sales jumped 8% over the year. As a result, the group is more optimistic about the new fiscal year, highlighting UK store sales were up 14% for the 13 weeks ended 2 October 2023.
Hotel Chocolate warned of inflatiotionary pressures back in June, blaming ongoing weakness in consumer sentiment and inflationary pressures for the fall.
It comes as the retailer shared plans to re-shape its business to prepare for its ‘next stage of growth‘.
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Hotel Chocolat co-founder and CEO, Angus Thirlwell said: “Hotel Chocolat is on the front foot again. The hard, foundational work we put in last year is now starting to deliver the results for us.
“Our new store format is trading well above our expectations, with 12 new locations planned to open in the next year.”
He added: “Now our year 1 of our 3-year ‘shape of the future’ plan has been completed, it has shown to be effective in creating operating efficiencies, with our Cambridgeshire chocolate factory and distribution hubs generating pleasing improvements in performance in overcoming the growing pains we experienced last year.”
Back in March, Hotel Chocolat began a formal redundancy consultation, putting jobs at risk as it plans to take the business in a “leaner and more competitive direction”.
