Overview

Luxury British chocolatier Hotel Chocolat has over 80 retail stores in the United Kingdom.

The only British chocolatier to grow cocoa on its own plantation, Hotel Chocolat has undergone a period of transformation to enhance the retail experience for their customer’s.

The brief

Following a period of sustained growth, Hotel Chocolat is currently focused on opening new stores to expand their retail offering.

Advance International was given a brief to provide a stable, reliable illuminated shelving system that is safe for employee’s to easily adjust whilst remaining within budget.

Development

Advance visited a number of existing stores to evaluate the current system.

Working alongside Hotel Chocolat’s design team, Advance made a number of changes to the existing furniture design.

Using an adaption of our Lynx aluminium shelving system, we also proposed an upgrade to the lighting specification with 4014 LEDs, providing a more premium look and feel to the lighting.

The unique design of the furniture means it can easily amended to one, two or three gondola bay sections.

Delivery

Partnering with the incumbent furniture supplier, each store was individually ordered and shipped on a three week rolling lead time with Advance, ensuring easy stock handling of repeat components for Hotel Chocolat.

To date, Advance has completed over 10 store’s including Hotel Chocolat’s flagship store at Covent Garden, London.

Summary

The project has been received very well by Hotel Chocolat and and hailed as giving a high-end, premium look to the in-store experience.

Incorporating a flexible, modular system has also allowed employee’s to easily and safely amend the shelving design themselves, adapting the layout to suit needs.