Hotel Chocolat to unveil new store concept

Hotel Chocolat is poised to unveil a new store interior concept designed by Terry Moore.

The Caulder Moore founder, and owner of Terry Moore Design, has worked closely with the chocolate-maker and retailer for five years. He won the contract about a year ago on the strength of his past work for the chocolatier.

Moore says the retailer’s executive creative director Fredrik Ahlin gave him ‘free rein’ on the design of the stores, while Ahlin concurs that ‘we worked our ideas up collaboratively’, although he admits they were influenced by Ahlin’s packaging designs.

‘We are trying to achieve a timeless, classic canvas on which to showcase the chocolates,’ says Ahlin.

A largely black-and-white colour palette will be complemented by an emphasis on ‘textural variety, depth and layering’, says Ahlin. The stores will also feature stone-tiled floors and treated wood.

Of the new concept, Moore says, ‘It more accurately reflects Hotel Chocolat’s cutting-edge direction, authenticity and originality.’ Moore also created the existing store format, which was applied across all 30 Hotel Chocolat stores.

‘The design reflects the fact that it has a bean-to-bar business, which is now reflected in the use of more natural materials from its plantation on St Lucia and elements of high fashion,’ says Moore.

Moore has so far worked on applying the concept to four new stores, each measuring about 1000m2, the first two of which will open in mid-August – one in Boston in the US, and another in Harrogate in the UK – with another Boston and a second UK store set to open later. A further three to six new stores featuring Moore’s concept will open in the UK and US after that. The concept will then be rolled out across the retailer’s existing stores.

One of the Boston stores will feature a private tasting room, where customers will be able to taste chocolate with wine – a feature that Moore says may be introduced to the retailer’s bigger stores.

Moore is also creating the interiors – and having some input into the architectural design – of a new eco-tourism centre and hotel on the retailer’s Caribbean plantation, both of which are due to open next spring.

The hotel, whose aesthetic Moore describes as ‘being about barefoot luxury’, consists of six lodges and a central structure incorporating a restaurant.