Luxury chocolate specialist Hotel Chocolat has been on an expansion spree in recent years.
The confectionary giant was acquired by Mars under a £534 million deal in January 2024. At the time of the takeover, the retailer claimed that the acquisition “could provide the brand with an enhanced platform for growth in the UK and potentially in new geographies”.
Hotel Chocolat went on to unveil plans to launch 20 stores over the next 18 months in May 2024. It then revealed ambitions to open its first bakery and hot food offer in July 2024, as part of the expansion of its Velvetiser Café format.
More recently, the business announced plans to launch 25 new UK outlets by the end of the year in January 2025. And in February 2026, it was reported that Hotel Chocolat was seeking to expand its presence across London, with target areas including Broadgate, Chelsea and Battersea Power Station.
As one of its most recent launches, Hotel Chocolat revealed plans to open a new site at White Rose shopping centre in Leeds earlier this month, with an opening date to be announced soon.
A combined luxury retail store and Velvetiser cafe
Designed to allow “guests to explore cacao in all forms”, the new site will combine a Hotel Chocolat luxury retail store with a dedicated Velvetiser cafe.
The Velvetiser cafe will serve visitors bakes and cakes inspired by Hotel Chocolat’s most-loved chocolates, which the brand says pair perfectly with its drink menu.
Visitors can choose from 19 core hot drinking chocolate flavours, limited-edition seasonal specials, and six iced drinking chocolates, all of which can be served as choc shakes.
Each drink can be tailored with dairy or plant-based alternatives and finished with a choice of toppings, such as the brand’s signature cacao whip.
Also commenting during its announcement, Hotel Chocolat district manager Lydia Davies claimed that its boutique and cafe concepts were “designed to offer a relaxing, experience-led shopping journey” where people could “immerse themselves in the world of cacao and enjoy our signature drinks and treats at a leisurely pace.”
In terms of why Hotel Chocolat chose White Rose for its upcoming site, the brand’s head of retail and café operations Nicola Hallinan explains that the launch followed requests from its fans.
“Our customers asked and we found a great location in the central atrium on the ground floor,” she says. “So, we’re truly at the heart of White Rose.”
“Plus, with completely free parking, being easy to navigate and award-winning facilities, we know our customers will have an exceptional experience from parking to being served in our new store and cafe.”
Providing more details on the combined site, the exec notes that the shop follows its “signature store design elements” to make it “instantly recognisable”.
“The café will feature our brand mantra ‘more cacao, less sugar’ proudly as an orange neon light, and our latest boxed selections range bring colour to shelves with a different colour representing each chocolate love match,” she adds.
Like many of Hotel Chocolat’s sites, its new White Rose location incorporates both a retail store and cafe.
Hotel Chocolat currently has 165 retail locations with 91 of those having Velvetiser cafés and stores across the UK.
Despite the two different elements of its offering, Hallinan insists that it tailors its stores “to make the transition between café and retail seamless”.
“Our team is always on hand to support customers find their favorites across both functions,” she explains.
“An exciting change to our usual format”
White Rose is not Hotel Chocolat’s only recent launch. The retailer also opened a new store in Stratford Westfield, London, on 14 May.
To celebrate this launch, the newly relocated shop, which is based on the lower ground floor of the shopping centre, offered its first 100 visitors who spent over £25 goody bags during its opening day.
Hallinan points out that the Stratford Westfield opening formed “an exciting change” to its usual format.
And it seems that this new format will also be coming to its new White Rose location.
Hallinan explains that its Stratford Westfield site joined its “Manchester New Cross Street store as a concept store that shares the origins of cacao from our Rabot Estate in St Lucia and brings it to the heart of the in-store experience”.
“We wanted to replicate this in London to enable more people to experience and understand cacao on a deeper level – and now we are bringing it to Leeds White Rose.”
