What inspired you to start your business/ brand?

 

The business started at home and was able to be flexible, given that we had young children at nursery. I grew up making things with my grandparents, and I decided to make some chocolate truffles, bars, and chocolate pizza.

We had stands at local school Christmas fairs and successfully secured a spot at the local farmers' market. Friends and family helped, which was great.  We found that everything sold ok, but the chocolate pizzas always sold out. There was a natural interest and enjoyment in the pizzas being different, and we made sure we always used premium ingredients. 

We then had a website built and started distributing leaflets at the farmers' market, and orders began coming through the website. It was exciting to see people love what I made, and it was even more exciting to receive the orders. My family was so supportive, including my husband and our two sons, who were natural taste testers.

We became quite busy and took on our first member of staff, whilst still at home. I wanted to ensure the business was viable before making a move. We spent about 18 months at home and had to decide whether we wanted to scale back or move to a unit. That's what we did; we moved to a couple of units that were close enough for me to nip out and pick up the children. We took on additional staff, we attended some larger shows, handed out lots of leaflets and were loving it. It is hard work, but the reward is great.

Then we started to receive trade enquiries, which were initially quite scary, but we went ahead and did it, and found that the staff running the stores were lovely. Then, larger companies became interested. Throughout this, I must say that my family was incredibly supportive. My boys would come after school and play while I finished work. My husband would go and get them and cook them tea if I was running a bit late finishing something.

16 years later, we are in a larger premises, still local, with great staff, and continue to grow.

 

What are your brand’s values?

 

Our brand represents the value of a handmade product, made in the UK, and the high quality that both of these elements can bring to a product. We value our staff and their hard work, as well as the support they provide to the business. We hope that when someone sees our company name, it represents all of these things.

 

What is your biggest motivation?

 

My biggest motivation was that people loved our product. We expanded our range of flavours and introduced additional sizes, including large and small. We ensured they travelled well so that our customers would be delighted with their purchase. The support of friends and family motivated me to continue. My father ran his own business, and my husband does, so I was lucky to have people around to ask questions and check that the finances were ok and I was doing it right. My sons were selling chocolate pizza slices on the school bus to raise money for themselves until the school decided that wasn't a good idea. The fact that they were proud motivated me as well. I'm not afraid of hard work and felt very motivated by the increased interest from trade accounts, which was exciting too. We were gaining recognition, and we also had interest coming in from overseas. I was doing it and still am, because I love it. It allows my imagination to be creative, too, although sometimes the ideas work and sometimes they don't. Staff are a significant motivator as well, when they are so supportive of the business and work so hard, it gives you the motivation to keep doing what we are doing.  It's a real team effort.

 

Where did the inspiration for your product(s) come from?

 

I'm not trained in chocolate work or any form of catering. The inspiration came from wanting to do something that would fit in with children in a nursery, and having seen my Nana do craft fairs with copper pictures she used to make and sell. I thought chocolate was always popular, and then I started thinking about how we could make something a bit different with chocolate. I watched numerous videos online and taught myself how to temper chocolate, as well as learn about the ideal temperature and humidity for the room where chocolate products are made. Inspiration comes from the people around me, my enjoyment of creating something, and a natural desire always to do more and better.

 

What has been a highlight whilst creating and building your brand?

 

The highlights have been numerous, from seeing the business grow to coming up with a new idea and seeing it work, and seeing that people like it.  Investing a significant amount of money in packaging and seeing it work enabled us to ship nationally, opening up the whole of the UK to our business. It was a highlight to see us in the local press, and then people showing images of their friends and family on Instagram and Facebook sharing our chocolate pizzas, all of which are inspirational in creating an incredible feeling of achievement. There are many highlights and sometimes low times when things don't work out, but the highs are more prevalent than the lows, and I believe the lows are essential too, as they teach you what works and what doesn't. You do have to pick yourself up and dust yourself down sometimes, but the next highlight is just around the corner.

 

What advice would you give to business owners, creators, designers and brand owners just starting out?

 

What advice would I give? Be prepared to work hard and be willing to work all hours. Running a business is not a 9-5 job. It helps a lot if your family are supportive of what you are doing. If anyone offers to help, accept it. If you can't pay them when you're just starting out, there are other ways to show your appreciation, such as a small bunch of flowers or a bottle of wine. Enjoy it, enjoy creating something and be proud of yourself for being brave enough to have a go.

 

Will you be launching any new collections at the Home & Gift Buyers' Festival, and if so, can you give us a sneak peek?

 

We are launching our Christmas 2025 range, and our shelves will be stocked with our core range and new products for Christmas. We have a new design Christmas chocolate pizza, Nibbles and Giggle Box, chocolate mediants in a new larger pack, and more, so come and see us on stand ME48.

 

What is your personal favourite from your new collection?

 

I love our new design for our Christmas pizzas this year; it features a very cheeky reindeer design on the chocolate plaque, which makes me smile every time I look at it. I also love the Nibbles and Giggles Box, a great little box of nibbles and treats and a card with jokes to share with friends and family. I love that all our products are very sociable and made to share (if you want to), and time together is special, just like our chocolate!

 

How does your brand operate sustainably?

 

We do everything we can to support sustainability. Our chocolate is sourced from the Cocoa Horizons scheme, run by Callebaut, which supports cacao farms and is committed to ensuring that no child labour is involved. Our boxes are FSC supported, our plastic is recyclable, the same as the boxes. We recycle all our office toners, and we have just invested in a new card board shredder, to be able to recycle all the cardboard that comes in to us by shredding it in a way that we can wrap some products with it, and also use it as void fill, and reduce our waste bill.

 

Don’t miss The Gourmet Chocolate Pizza Co at Home & Gift Buyers Festival, stand ME48, from 20–23 July 2025. 

Register now, your next favourite treat is waiting.