Hotel Chocolat pays back £6.4m of 'chocolate bonds' it sold to customers

Customers who invested £2,000 in the 2010 bond received six boxes of chocolates per year

The ‘chocolate bonds’ issued in 2010 and 2014 helped to create 600 jobs, open new stores and develop cocoa sustainability projects in St Lucia and Ghana (Reuters)

Hotel Chocolat has paid back £6.4m it borrowed from customers through bonds that paid a return in the form of boxes of luxury chocolate.

The “chocolate bonds” issued in 2010 and 2014 helped to create 600 jobs, open new stores and develop cocoa sustainability projects in St Lucia and Ghana, the company said.

Customers who invested £2,000 in the 2010 bond received six boxes of chocolates per year, each priced at £18.95, equivalent to 6.72 per cent interest.

The upmarket chocolatier said it used some of the money to build four model farms that supply disease-resistant cocoa seedlings and demonstrate best-practice cocoa growing techniques to improve farmers’ incomes.

The British company said it also built a fully operational community medical centre in Osuben, Ghana.

Angus Thirlwell, co-founder and chief executive of Hotel Chocolat, said: “Thanks to the support of our amazing chocolate bond-holders, we were able to invest in ethical cocoa, British manufacturing, create hundreds of jobs and then repay them in full, as planned.”

Founded in 1993, the company has developed a loyal following that it sought to capitalise on when it first offered the innovative chocolate bonds to 100,000 members of its tasting club in May 2010.

Other companies have also attempted to tap their customers for investment in recent years as bank lending has become more restricted.

Mexican restaurant chain Chilango issued a “burrito bond” paying 8 per cent in 2014, while subscription wine seller Naked Wines offered a bond in 2013 that paid 7 per cent in cash or 10 per cent in booze.