The Interview: Hotel Chocolat, CEO and co-founder Angus Thirlwell

Listeners with a sweet tooth will likely already be familiar with
the Hotel Chocolat brand. Started in 1993, it has charmed UK
shoppers with its meticulously produced chocolate and is now one
of our most beloved chocolatiers. As the business prepares for
one of its busiest times of the year, and what promises to be a
very different ‘Covid’ Christmas, it’s also back on our TV
screens this autumn, providing behind the scenes access into the
running of the UK’s biggest chocolate maker.


In this special episode of The Interview Series, Hotel Chocolat
CEO and Co-founder, Angus Thirlwell, joins Martin Popplewell in
conversation to talk about the business response to the global
pandemic and ‘Retail Darwinism’, the growing importance of online
sales and its increasing global appeal.


They say ‘life is like a box of chocolates’, and that has never
felt truer. A year that started full of promise has, well, turned
out a little differently than we hoped—to put it mildly. For many
in retail, profits may have melted in 2020 as a result of the
pandemic. But at Hotel Chocolat, they remain positive about the
future, with gifting and online sales protecting it from the
worst of the impact on physical retail.