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Luxury brand Hotel Chocolat, which helped ease the pandemic gloom during the dark lockdown days, is trying to extend sales through its subscription service.

Chocolate lovers flocked for regular deliveries to lift the spirits and pamper loved ones. Subscribers pay between £ 20 and £ 30 a month, and membership has grown by over 300 percent over the past year. Gift sales have now more than tripled.

The British group, which started as an online company nearly three decades ago, introduced a chocolate subscription model in 1997 to increase the loyalty of its customers who want regular deliveries of their products. The service kept business going during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

“Chocolate is a happy product and boy do we need a little luck,” says Co-Founder and CEO Angus Thirlwell. “We have seen so many beautiful, heartwarming and tender messages sent from one group to another. Our role in making these connections is a privilege. “

Subscription models have proliferated during the pandemic, with retailers ranging from toilet paper to pet care products to reap the benefits. GlobalData estimates that the UK recipe box market grew 347 percent to £ 578 million between 2017 and 2020. The Royal Mail Subscription Box market report said the UK market is valued at nearly £ 2 billion in four years.

For Hotel Chocolat, founded in 1993, its focus on online retail enabled the company to capitalize on a global pandemic-triggered e-commerce boom when the lockdown kicked in last year. The stock is up 17.8 percent over the past 12 months.

The increased demand for its premium product has bolstered its financial strength to allow the chocolatier to expand its physical presence and accelerate some of its growth plans. In Japan, it opened a store for a month during the pandemic when rivals like Godiva “went quiet”.

Our competitors “hid under a rock during the pandemic,” which meant Hotel Chocolat could rush to preferred locations, says Thirlwell. The group now has 22 locations across Japan.

Hotel Chocolat’s products don’t carry fair trade labeling, but the company says it was trying to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 on its cocoa suppliers on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. The company plans to introduce a “gentle farming” charter later this year to “ramp up” its dedicated ethics program.

“Our goal is clear,” says Thirwell. “We’re not as important as vegetables, bread or milk, but we serve a purpose. We’re not just a frivolous thing that nobody needs. “

This is one in a series of articles for the blog exploring the impact of the pandemic on people, communities and businesses around the world