Packing My Flipflops: HC to Open in Island Abbatoir

I’ve nipped over to Jersey to visit Sandpiper, our franchise partners for the Channel Islands. Sandpiper will be opening stores for Hotel Chocolat in Guernsey within the next few weeks, and in Jersey in October.

What a lovely surprise as I walked into Sandpiper’s reception. There we are, already in pride of place and in good company. I have a feeling our brand is going to be in safe hands here.

Peter Clarke is our Brand Manager at Sandpiper, and he had the whole head office team lined up to get a taste of HC.

This lady was an instant Chuao fan, and who wouldn’t be?

They all bravely tried the 100% bar and the reaction was entertaining.

Peter was a major fan, and I noticed he smuggled the remaining part of the bar away with him when we finished!

Having captured hearts and minds as HC tends to do, it was my turn to be enthralled as Peter took me down to the Jersey harbour to visit Liberty Wharf.

We started with lunch at Pasty Presto, a brand which Sandpiper launched just recently. There we are in the courtyard already.

This beautiful Victorian building was originally an abbatoir, but it’s shaping up nicely as a boutique shopping mall now.

Inside, the original features have been sensitively retained (I sound like an estate agent) and there will be no fascias, just bus stop signs all the way down. That’s going to be us, on the left, where Tanya is standing. (Tanya is recruiting the HC team.)

A good sized shopping space with a stock room to be built in.

Someone please tell Peter Harris that the view from the door is not finished yet…

Here we are close up. Notice the abbatoir touches. The grille that slides across the door – our store will be in a holding pen! The iron ring is where the oxen were chained up ready to be shot, and the gutters where the blood ran down are still all there. Our own naughty step, right outside the door. Let’s hope the team is well behaved!