Hotel Chocolat: the £534m rise of Britain’s own Willy Wonka
As the brand is taken over for a bumper price, Angus Thirlwell tells Sam Chambers how he hit the nation’s sweet spot
Hotel Chocolat co-founder, Angus Thirlwell, has a reputation as the Willy Wonka for our times
ILLUSTRATION BY PETE BAKER
The Sunday Times
Decades before he made millions selling posh chocolates, Angus Thirlwell cut his teeth in toast. As a boarder at Barnard Castle school in Co Durham, he acquired a toaster and put it to work on the free bread and butter given to sixth-formers. Then he got junior pupils to ferry the buttered toast to their peers under the cover of darkness. Each slice was charged at 5p (including delivery). “The margins were spectacular,” Thirlwell chuckled.
Now 60, the chief executive of Hotel Chocolat has left those margins in the shade. On Thursday, the company shocked the City by revealing that it was being taken over by the US confectionery giant Mars for £534 million. The deal valued the chocolatier at 375p a share, an eye-popping
