Administration looms for fine chocolate making company

A York-based chocolate maker which was hard hit by the pandemic has filed a notice to appoint an administrator.

York Cocoa House, set up by founder and managing director Sophie Jewett, has been trading since 2011 and opened its own production facility, York Cocoa Works, at a former Job Centre premises in Castlegate in 2018.

The firm said it aimed to bring fine chocolate making back to the city by establishing a chocolate production, education and development centre close to where Henry Isaac Rowntree started his Cocoa, Chocolate and Chicory business in the old Tuke store.

According to Companies House, the business’s next accounts made up to 29 December 2020 are overdue. The firm’s unaudited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2019 reported that it employed an average of 27 staff during 2019.

A compulsory strike off action against the business was discontinued in 2019 and it entered into a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) in 2020 to schedule payments to its creditors.