Hotel Chocolat's Stategic Choices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Hotel Chocolat's Stategic Choices - Essay Example Since its existence, Hotel Chocolat has been operating as a privately run company with active involvement of the co-founders. Moreover, it is an example for those chocolate shops that are willing to enter the retail sector of the confectionary industry; Hotel Chocolat grew from an online store to a luxury retail store in the year 2004. The uniqueness of the brand’s offerings lies in its level of authenticity and originality that is evident in every bite of its manufactured chocolate (Hotel Chocolat, 2013a). Presently, Hotel Chocolat has about seventy stores in UK, five in the US and Middle East. Hotel Chocolat portfolio comprises of various attractive products and businesses that shed light on its aggressive expansion strategy. A cacao based cuisine street food cafe is present at Borough Market in London that offers the customers a wide range of delicious items such as sweet and savoury wraps of cacao, genuine cocoa tea along with huge choices of small chocolate batches. In Sa int Lucia, there is the Boucan Restaurant which is presenting the customers with a complete experience of dining. The ambience is quite appealing for the visitors which are complemented with a healthy and light menu from cacao cuisine (Hurley, 2010; MarketingWeek, 2011). Hotel Chocolat is the pioneer brand in offering the ‘Chocolate Bonds’ for the expansion of the UK economy. These bonds were offered to its members of Chocolate Tasting Club who helped in raising fund of four million pounds. One of the best creations by the organisation is ‘London – Roast + Conch’; it is a venue that has been developed for roasting the bean in small batches and provide the customers an opportunity to view the process of chocolate making in front of their eyes (Cuddeford-Jones, 2012). In order to successfully fulfil the desires of the chocolate lovers, Hotel Chocolat has been offering the most diverse range of products and each one of them has a wide variety for select ion so that everyone can buy the chocolate and enjoy it to the utmost satisfaction level. Broadly, the products are categorised in six divisions such as Sleekster Selection, The Purist, Giant slabs, Selectors, Liquid Chocolat, Cocoa Juvenate Beauty, Luxury Box Chocolates and Small Little Things (Hotel Chocolat, 2013b). According to Taylor (2013), Hotel Chocolat reported a complete year profit-before-tax (PBT) of 84% which is about 5.4 million pounds. At the end of June 2012, the group sales accounted for 63.8 million pounds and EBITDA rose to 7.8 million pounds which was a rise by 41% when compared on year-on-year basis. UK Chocolate Industry Analysis In order to evaluate the strategic options that are available for a company in its industry, it is imperative for the concerned personnel to carry out its external and internal analysis (Day & Moorman, 2010). The external analysis reveals the macro-environmental factors that can impact the business performance in the long-run. Although an analysis of the competitors is mandatory but political, economic, social and legal situations can drastically impact the business operations (Brodie, 2009). Hotel Chocolat strategic analysis can be completed only when the macro-environmental factors are analysed extensively to properly identify the likely obstacles that can be encountered by it. According to KeyNote