50. Love Cocoa

Love Cocoa is an innovative chocolate company that not only survived lockdown, but conquered it with an amazing growth trajectory

Founder: James Cadbury
Founded: 2016
Website: lovecocoa.com

Love Cocoa’s founder, James Cadbury, is someone who surely knows his chocolate, being the great, great, great grandson of John Cadbury, the founder of the globally revered Cadbury’s brand.

Cadbury has struck out on his own with Love Cocoa, a confectionery gift service that he launched in 2016, with the vision to provide high quality chocolate with an environmentally conscious angle. The company has planted over 650,000 trees in the past 12 months, with the goal of planting over 10 million in the next three years. Its product is also entirely plastic-free and the company is entirely carbon negative.

Love Cocoa operates an omnichannel strategy, blending direct to consumer, wholesale, exports and corporate sales, and it was this approach that allowed the company to flourish during the pandemic, focusing on growing channels when others were floundering. During this tumultuous time for many businesses, Love Cocoa tripled its workforce and doubled its revenue, no doubt to the envy of its rivals.

The company continued to innovate during the lockdown, refusing to rest on its laurels, and created a vegan chocolate bar made from oat milk, having spotted a potentially lucrative gap in the market.

Love Cocoa also operates the HIP Chocolate brand, a plant-based oat milk chocolate that actually launched during lockdown, and is now stocked by many large retail stores and over 500 independent ones. HIP Chocolate is the top selling chocolate bar with high street retailer WH Smiths, and also occupies shelf space in prestigious outlets such as Selfridges and Harrods.