UK chocolate brand extends reach

The Grown Up Chocolate Company (GUCC) has extended its reach to all corners of the UK after signing a supply deal with national online grocery supermarket ocado.com.

Ocado will stock four of the Grown Up Chocolate Company’s quirkily named bars: Crunchy Praline Wonder Bar, Fruit and Nut Hunky Dory, Dark Chocolate Smoothy and Salted Peanut Caramel Cracker. They will retail at £1.49 each.

The chocolate has designed to elicit nostalgia for childhood confectionery favourites, and the bars themselves have been re-imagined using luxury ingredients to appeal to the adult palette. Recipes are conceived and the bars handcrafted inhouse by a team of chefs led by chocolatier Sylvie Oidtmann.

To further sweeten the deal and stimulate awareness, 5000 small peanut caramel bars will be given as samples to key chocolate customers when they place their next ocado.com order. Further promotions are planned.

The news is the latest highlight in a period of rapid growth for GUCC, following a £350,000 investment in a new kitchen in Harlow, North London, this April, a listing with specialist fine foods wholesaler Hider Foods Imports Ltd in July, and new export deals with distributors in the US, Canada and Russia signed over summer.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Ocado,” says James Ecclestone, GUCC founder and CEO. “Not only is it the world’s biggest online grocery retailer, but its brand ethos fits perfectly with our own. It truly understands our product and its place in the market.

“We think of Ocado as a very large and well respected farm shop and we’re thrilled our bars will be appreciated by foodies that really know their stuff. This partnership is a real landmark, and we are so proud to be a British manufacturer supporting other British businesses.”

Ben Higginson, buying manager at Ocado, adds: “Ocado customers love getting delicious treats with a twist delivered right to their table, and The Grown Up Chocolate Company offers both. The branding captures a cheeky sense of fun associated with eating chocolate that we think customers are really going to enjoy.”