Knoops Competitors

Luxury British cacao grower and chocolatier Hotel Chocolat was founded to make people happy through chocolate! Co-founders Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris built the brand on three unwavering pillars – Originality, Authenticity and Ethics – that remain central to the brand’s success. Starting as an early online brand, the first Hotel Chocolat store opened in Hertfordshire in 2004, and its manager is still at the helm. Today, we have more than 120 Hotel Chocolat's across the UK, with a multi-million strong online global customer database. In the grounds of our eco-conscious, organic cacao farm in Saint Lucia we have also created an amazing visitor experience Project Chocolat, together with the award-winning Rabot Hotel and Restaurant. One of the few chocolate makers to actually grow cacao, we connect the world of sustainable agriculture with the hedonism of top-quality chocolate. This knowledge has enabled us to bring an innovative Gentle Farming programme into the world, bringing to our cacao growing communities enough money for a happy life whilst supporting a bio-diverse, climate smart farming technique. The Hotel Chocolat team has a strong set of cultural values best summarised as ‘Be brave. Be kind.’ We’re just getting started. Come and be a part of what’s next.

Here at Thorntons, we’ve been crafting chocolate for over 100 years. That’s a lot of know-how that goes into each and every chocolate we make. It all started back in 1911 when travelling confectioner, Joseph William Thornton, opened up a sweet shop in Sheffield. He didn’t know then just how successful it would become, so he carried on with his day job and entrusted his 14‐year‐old son Norman to run the shop. He handed over the keys and told him to “make this the best sweet shop in town” ‐ and that’s exactly what he did. Word was starting to spread about the Thorntons shop, so Joseph brought on his brother, Stanley. With lots of quirky sweet treats like ‘Violet Cachous’, ‘Sweet Lips’ and ‘Phul-Nanas’, they sold the best confectionery around. But it wasn’t until the 1920’s that the brothers were making their hand‐made chocolate truffles, crystallised fondants and, of course, their famous Thorntons special toffee. Then, there was no stopping them. A lot has changed since our first humble store in Sheffield. By the 1970’s we had nearly 90 shops, and now we have a grand total of 228. But some things have stayed exactly the same. We still only use the finest cocoa beans to create our chocolate ‐ whether it’s dark, milk or white. And whether we’re making our famous toffees and chocolates or hampers stuffed full of treats, our passion for chocolate and love of craft still shines through in everything we do.