Still ready to serve.

The government has just published the rules governing the second English lockdown.

This time, the entire food industry is one of the ring-fenced areas that is encouraged to stay fully open and trading.

Hotel Chocolat is classified as a ‘food retailer’ (chocolate, biscuits, drinking chocolate, alcohol), and therefore our stores are able to remain fully open to sell product to be consumed off the premises, alongside off-licenses, cake shops and other independent food retailers.

We have carefully selected a number of our 112 stores to remain open, with cafés operating a takeaway service. The safety of our customers and team is our number one priority and we have spent the past eight months meticulously honing the measures we have in place to enable us to make this move with confidence.

We will only stay open where customer support is strong enough, indicating that we are serving a purpose.

We remain open in Northern Ireland and Wales and the remaining England and Republic of Ireland stores will re-open from 2nd December. In Scotland, four of our stores will be closed from the end of day on 20th November, re-opening on 12th December, in-line with local restrictions. Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Fort Kinnaird and Inverness remain open.

Our priorities are clear:

1. Keep our customers and our team safe.
2. Serve our community, bringing a bit of joy in tough times and boosting morale.
3. Keep the Hotel Chocolat family together

Alongside our colleagues in head office, our distribution centre and our manufacturing team, this helps hugely in keeping the wheels of the business turning, supporting all our livelihoods.

Let’s keep the chocolate flowing.

Angus

Stores in Wales, Scotland (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Fort Kinnaird and Inverness) and Northern Ireland are open in line with local Covid rules