Business booming for ambitious chocolate making entrepreneurs
A YORKSHIRE chocolate making firm which boasts Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury department stores among its clients, has relocated into a factory five times bigger than its previous site as demand soars.
Lauden Chocolate was launched seven years ago by entrepreneurs Stephen and Sun Trigg. As the business rapidly expands, it has moved into a unit on the Wyther Lane Industrial Estate in Kirkstall, Leeds – the previous premises of catering firm Dine which has relocated to The Mansion in Roundhay, Leeds.
The new site is around 3,000 sq ft – a significant increase from Lauden’s previous 600 sq ft city centre premises.
The firm, which counts British Airways, favourite with the Royal family, luxury department store Fortnum & Mason, and five-star hotel Cliveden House in Berkshire, among its most prestigious clients, now plans to launch a chocolate making school in the new site, a shop and then a tea room in Leeds city centre.
Lauden is also doubling the size of its range – to 24 different chocolates – thanks to a new dedicated development space in the factory, and expects to reach £1m turnover in the next five years. The development space is also allowing Lauden to work with a number of well-known brands to create new products in partnership with them.
“The business is healthy and we’ve got a great product,” Stephen Trigg said.
“In a busy month, we will create 1.5 tons of chocolate (a single chocolate weighs in at 9g) but with orders coming up, this record will be beaten this year.”
The core business is supplying farm shops and delhi shops up and down the country. Galvins and Windows Michelin-starred restaurant in Mayfair and Marc Wilkinson’s Restaurant Fraiche in Merseyside are also clients.
Lauden exports to Japan, Russia, Germany and the Middle East, too, and Trigg said he is looking to expand the firm’s exports.
The West Yorkshire business was launched out of frustration – the couple said they couldn’t find chocolate they loved in Leeds, where they moved to after living in Singapore, where Sun is originally from.
“We’ve always loved chocolate. Whenever we went anywhere, we were always looking to find the nicest chocolate and when we moved to Leeds, we couldn’t find chocolate we were looking for, so we decided to make our own at home,” Mr Trigg said.
The couple spent the best part of a year teaching themselves and completing professional courses. The business then moved on to selling chocolate at farmers markets and trade shows before entering awards. It has scooped a number of accolades – including Great Taste awards, described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food industry – and best chocolate producer in this year’s Good Housekeeping awards. Trigg said it has become renowned in the chocolate industry for its fruit based chocolates.
