Monday Interview: “We are a niche within a niche,” says third generation chocolatier

“WE want our brand to be flexible,” said third generation managing director of Skipton-based Whitakers Chocolates, William Whitaker.

The chocolate business is diverse, supplying chocolate shops as well as hotels and restaurants, but Mr Whitaker said that the business was aiming for the discount market.

With the growth of budget stores such as B&M, Poundworld and Poundland to name a few, it is a key market for Whitakers, and it has recently undergone a rebrand as it looks to expand its market share.

“We had to come into the 21st century. We have lots of competitors but they are mainly in artisan and bespoke industries, and more expensive.

“We are a niche within a niche,” he said, and Whitakers’ market share in the catering industry is testament to that.

“Everything we do in retail is a result of our desire to dominate the catering market,” Mr Whitaker said.

He joined as the fourth generation of Whitakers to take on the business in the 1980’s, when the firm’s biggest seller, a mint wafer, was still handmade at a factory in Skipton.

“This one main product was sold exclusively into hospital and restaurant trade.”

The company’s £1m turnover in 1981 was largely as a result of selling mint wafers to the hotel industry, and Mr Whitaker knew something had to give.

“That’s how we really decided that hotels and restaurants were our niche, after all there were only After Eights in the market, and we piggy-backed on their advertising and marketing.”

Now, only 10% of Whitakers’ products bear the family name as the rest go to the catering industry.

Mr Whitaker knew then that the product could be bigger, and the company diversified, but still invests heavily in a narrower focus of products, and the development of more complex machinery meant that wrapping and mass production were in his grasp. It only takes 3 people these days to make a million chocolates.

Whitakers employs 150 at its Skipton base, and is constantly on the lookout for new and innovative machinery to increase capacity.

The business has come a long way from its beginnings in 1889, when Mr Whitaker’s great grandfather and his wife opened a grocer’s shop in Crosshills.

One of their children, Mr Whitaker’s great aunt Ida, was taught the craft of baking – as well as a force to be reckoned with.

She encouraged her parents to turn the grocers into a bakery, and in 1903 she learned from the vicar’s wife the art of the chocolatier.

Opening in Otley and Keighley, and then expanding in Skipton, the business continued to grow, developing bakery products right through until late 1950s, with one person making chocolates.

In the 1960’s, Mr Whitaker’s father came along, a nephew of Aunt Ida. At that point the company employed 20 people.

He had a vision for the business. With supermarkets getting bigger and grocers like the one his grandparent’s owned rapidly declining in number and popularity, he saw a gap in the market to supply bigger chains, as well as the hotel and restaurant industry locally.

With low productivity and the perishable nature of bakery goods, Mr Whitaker Snr turned to chocolate.

The ability to distribute further afield and even to London was a “big step” at the time. 

Then, the Skipton facility got its next big refurbishment. The family dug out the garden, and built a chocolate factory in their backyard. “It was a pretty reckless move for the time!” said Mr Whitaker.

But the gamble paid off by the time the current Mr Whitaker got involved in the business in the 1980s.

“The wafer was still a big seller to the catering industry when I joined the business. I knew we’d gone as far as we could with it.

“I knew we would have to invest in wrapped goods, which travelled better, and sell to a bigger market. That’s what our secret to success is – we’ve spent the last 30 years becoming a specialist chocolate producer of wrapped chocolates.”

Now, Whitakers sells to more than 20 other countries across the globe, with main markets in Scandinavia, and Mr Whitaker has his eye on the rest of the world too.