Two years, one million chocolates...

2 years, 2 national TV appearances, 2 very grateful founders and 1 million chocolates!

Time has flown by since we had the idea to create a fresh chocolate business and first launched on Kickstarter in the middle of the pandemic in 2020 – followed by a first year of innovation with Salted Caramel and Hazelnut flavours, Gifting Jars and refill model (more later) and two office moves.

Our second year has been dominated by Dragons’ Den – having secured funding with Peter and Steven (October 2021), we moved to larger premises (Nov), bought a walk-in cool-room (Dec), launched recyclable pouches (Jan 2022),  and started scaling-up to meet the anticipated demand…

In case you missed it, we aired on BBC 1 in March and then on Gogglebox the following day and sold 2 years of stock in 2 hours. After continued record demand, we reluctantly closed our online store for nearly 12 weeks while we made, packed and sent orders. We thought were prepared – we weren’t and we learnt this the hard way! It was a huge relief when the last orders were finally posted in early June.

We’ve had busy, messy and warm summer!

It’s not much fun being a chocolate business during record summer temperatures. Steve and I had to make decisions daily on whether we could risk posting against the dual hazards of heat and Royal Mail strikes.

However, we’ve also been busy working on new products and packs and how to scale-up further (more later).

 

In August, we hired our first employee, Sofya, to help us with all things marketing, with help from Steven and Peter.

 

In September, we launched new variety packs including the ‘Classic Monty’ by popular request and triple-packs of single flavours.

 

As we start October, we’re delighted to announce that our Luxury Jars and Eco Refill pouch system is being re-introduced – this refill model means you need never run out of chocolates again! 

 

 

At this two year milestone, we estimate you’ve eaten a million of our fresh chocolates!

  

Now feels like a great time to say a huge thank you to the broader team who have helped us through these first two years – many, but not all of them are below.

 

 

We’re two years young, and there’s so much more to come

 

To whet your appetites...

 

Steve has been busy working on our NEW Limited Edition flavour which will be available in late October (yes, it's even better, and it's back, by popular demand!)

 

 

We’re also introducing new festive packaging, a new gifting postal box and a corporate gifting range on 1^st November.

  

 

So thank you all – to our partners, family & friends for getting us here, to our teams and network of helpers, and above all to our customers – we couldn’t have got this far without you.

Stay safe & well in these turbulent times & if you've read to the end - that's impressive!

Steve & Giles 

P.S. While it is 2 years for Russell & Atwell, for Giles' family, October marks 101 years of working in chocolate. If you'd like to discover more - do read about '5 men and an idea' here  and the story of our first year click here