Hotel Chocolat‘s continued expansion efforts boosted its profits in the last half of 2016 after going public in May.

The luxury chocolate retailer posted a 28 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £11.2 million in the 26 weeks to Christmas Day.

Sales also shot up by 14 per cent to £62.5 millio and 12 per cent on a proforma basis, following the acquisition of Hotel Chocolat Estates Limited.

A bumper Christmas period aided the retailer’s promising growth with customer numbers climbing 16.2 per cent.

READ MORE: Hotel Chocolat nearly triples profits as it prepares for best Christmas ever

Digital revenues also saw a boost of 11 per cent, as the retailer‘s new website made for faster speeds and better conversion rates. 

Despite boosting revenues, the construction of the new site meant recruitment efforts for its subscription service were scaled back, seeing a six per cent drop in sales.

Now boasting a 93-store estate, the retailer opened 10 new stores during the period, boosting year-on-year sales by four per cent.

“The critical Christmas period was very successful, helped by good availability, popular and innovative new ranges and significantly increased digital transactions,” chief executive and co-founder Angus Thirlwell said.

”We continue to make good headway against our three key strategic objectives of opening more stores, improving our digital capability and increasing our production capacity.”

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