Japan Partnership Agreement

RNS Number : 4072L

Hotel Chocolat Group PLC

03 January 2023

 

3 January 2023

HOTEL CHOCOLAT GROUP PLC

( " Hotel Chocolat ", the " Company" or the " Group ")

Japan Partnership Agreement

Hotel Chocolat Group plc, a premium chocolate maker, today announces that it has signed a new strategic partnership agreement with Tokyo-based Eat Creator Corporation.

●	The agreement supports Hotel Chocolat's global strategic ambitions, applying the key business learnings from the first four years of trading in Japan.
●	Eat Creator will be providing growth capital, new supply side know-how and proven expertise in food brand development for the Japanese consumer.
●	Hotel Chocolat will hold 20% equity in the newly established vehicle, with brand royalty  revenues going to Hotel Chocolat PLC.
●	21 branded Hotel Chocolat stores will initially be within the newly established vehicle, supported by a customer database of more than 200,000 registered Japanese consumers

Satoshi Nagasuna, Eat Creator Corporation CEO, commented:

"Like many Japanese people, I have watched the positive impact that the Hotel Chocolat brand has made in our market over the last four challenging years. When the opportunity presented itself to become directly involved with the business, we realised that our skills would be a good match with what was needed to take Hotel Chocolat Japan to the next level. We are excited to get started."

Angus Thirlwell, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hotel Chocolat, said:

"Our new partner is well equipped to optimise the brand's potential for Japan, bringing proven expertise, new capital and a natural alignment on brand values. We are looking forward to combining the ingredients of Eat Creator with the ingredients of Hotel Chocolat into a powerful recipe for our next chapter in Japan."

Enquiries:

Hotel Chocolat Group PLC	Tel: [phone]
Angus Thirlwell, Co-Founder and CEO
Peter Harris, Co-Founder and Development Director
Matt Pritchard, CFO
Liberum (Nominated Adviser and Sole Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Clayton Bush
Edward Thomas
Miquela Bezuidenhoudt
Citigate Dewe Rogerson	Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Angharad Couch
Alex Winch

Notes to Editors:

Hotel Chocolat is a premium British chocolate maker with a strong and distinctive D2C brand. The business was founded by Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, who are still executives within the business, and has traded under the Hotel Chocolat brand since 2003. The Group is unusual in being a grower (organic cacao farm in Saint Lucia), a manufacturer (Cambridgeshire) and owning its extensive direct to consumer channels (branded stores, websites). The Group was admitted to trading on AIM in 2016.

Eat Creator Corporation is an innovative company that continues to take on the challenge of creating the next generation of food culture.

Their mission is to create culture, content, and operating systems in the field of food, with various partners.

Current Eat Creator concepts in Tokyo include Neki, Social Kitchen, Unis,  BANK kabutocho , Songbook, Teal and Ease .

 

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