Hotel Chocolat has swung to a loss, citing lower online and international sales as it pivots the business for its “next stage of growth”.
The chocolatier fell from a pre-tax profit of £21.7m to a loss of £800,000 in the 53 weeks to 2 July 2023.
This included £1.6m of restructuring costs and a £3.5m impairment of the estate in St Lucia due to the decline in the value of the Rabot Estate as tourism has not fully recovered from the impacts of the pandemic.
Sales declined 10% to £204.5m, with UK revenues falling 8% and a 24% drop in sales from digital and wholesale.
However, UK store sales jumped 8% over the year.
Hotel Chocolate warned on profits back in June, blaming ongoing weakness in consumer sentiment and inflationary pressures for the fall.
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
It came as the retailer shared plans to re-shape its business to prepare for its next stage of growth.
The group was more optimistic about the new fiscal year, highlighting UK store sales were up 14% for the 13 weeks ended 2 October 2023.
It noted four of the planned 12 stores for FY24 were now open and outperforming expectations, compared to just one store opening in 2023.
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.
“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.”
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
