Innovation helps chocolate retailer beat Covid-19 closure

Stamford Heavenly Chocolates, in London Road, Stamford, saw its visitor numbers tumble and its fully-booked workshops season blighted by cancellations as the coronavirus scare took hold.

New Government guidelines for social distancing had left the shop, which has an eight seat workshop and handcrafts a range of Belgian chocolates, unable to cope with the sheer number of visitors.

The shop has two staff and a number of part-time support for the workshops but it is the workshops that provide enough revenue and work for the employees.

Owner Barbara Farrow said: “This small growing business like others in the area was presented with the difficult decision on how to cover overheads.

“Refunding workshops would cost the business thousands.

“But I wondered if customers could not come to my chocolate making workshops over Easter, could I take the experience to them?

“I called the team together and we created an Easter Bunny House kit with printed instructions we could post to all our workshop attendees.

“By offering this as a replacement to our workshops meant we can still offer the experience our customers love and avoid costly refunds.

“Within an hour of placing this announcement on our Facebook page we had received lots of support. We also received messages from people who were not booked on our workshops who wanted to buy the kits.”

The response inspired the team to create two more kits including Egg Heads and Chocolate Lollies.

Barbara said: “We didn’t start with plans to create homemade kits as we love welcoming our customers into our busy workshops. It’s been great that as a team we’ve gone from feeling very deflated we might have to close to putting all our energy into helping our business thrive.”

Customers can visit the online shop www.stamfordheavenlychocolates.co.uk/shop/