Two more artisanal chocolatiers have gone bust following the 2024-25 surge in cocoa prices that saw the trade’s input costs skyrocket.
Horsham’s Cocoa Loco and Nottingham’s Gourmet Chocolate Pizza Co entered liquidation in early March, under Adcroft Hilton and Opus Restructuring & Insolvency firms respectively.
Following February’s pre-pack sale of artisan chocolatier and royal supplier Prestat to Artisan du Chocolat, the liquidations mark the latest in a series of blows to the UK’s premium chocolate trade.
While cocoa prices have now fallen back to their pre-surge level of around £2,000 per tonne on the London exchange, between January 2024 and January 2026 cocoa cost at least double that, peaking at over £9,000 per tonne.
Smaller operators – especially artisanal companies, which typically have higher labour costs – have struggled to cope with squeezed margins.
Liquidators of the Gourmet Chocolate Pizza Co named cocoa prices as a central factor in the company’s collapse, and ensuing loss of 15 jobs.
It is not clear how many jobs were lost in the liquidation of Cocoa Loco. Based in Horsham until September 2025, the company was sold to a new owner in Blackpool before entering liquidation in March 2026.
Historic chocolatier Prestat was forced to close its flagship Piccadilly storefront after 124 years. Administrators from Xeinadin Corporate Recovery said price rises had not been enough to keep Prestat afloat, as “the group’s ability to pass on cost inflation was constrained by competitive pressures within the premium chocolate segment and reduced discretionary consumer spending”.
With margins further squeezed by above-commodity market average rises in the price of high-quality cacao, the company was forced into a sale with £4.8m owed to creditors, including to subsidiary Rococo Chocolates.
Mainstream chocolate manufacturers have likewise had to find ways to face the cocoa crisis, though by raising prices many have suffered a blow to volumes. Confectionery giant Mondelez suffered a 4.8% fall in volume/mix in the final quarter of 2025, thanks in part to a 9.9% price hike.
And in summer 2025, The Grocer revealed that McVitie’s White Digestives, and Nestlé’s White Kit Kats could no longer be classified as white chocolate as their manufacturers cut cocoa butter content to protect margins.
More reformulations followed in the year with Penguin and Club biscuits transitioning to a “chocolate flavour coating”, alongside Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband.
No comments yet