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Service Update and FAQ

As a food producer and distributor, during the current emergency we are using 3 principles to guide us:

1/ Follow the latest Government guidance on safety

In our distribution centre, we have taken careful and extreme measures to keep the team safe, putting safety ahead of profit. This means we can handle approximately half the workload of pre-virus and is why we are selling a smaller range of products and collections than usual on our web site. We will update this range on a regular basis until we can get back to offering our full range.

2/ Keep the Hotel Chocolat family together, whatever it takes

However long this lasts, we intend to keep the team together with no redundancies and pay as usual. We made this commitment before the Chancellor stepped in with some support to make this easier (which is hugely appreciated).

3/ Serve our community of customers

Chocolate to eat / drinking chocolate are foods that most U.K. households want to have in their homes.

But we are also told by customers that it’s about morale; whether that is the joy of sending or receiving an unexpected delivery of our chocolate with a personal message from someone you love or the happy ritual of passing a box of chocolates around your family in the evening.

The national spirit is being put to the test in all countries right now and doing our little bit to help maintain social cohesion at a distance and morale is valued and important.

Customer Services Update

We care passionately about our customers, and throughout these most challenging of times we have had to adapt our business to remain safe and responsible; for our teams and for our customers to ensure we can continue to help and to answer your queries.

After much hard work and determination we are pleased to confirm that our Customer Service team has now found a new way of working that best supports our customers whilst keeping the team safe. For some, they are back working at Head Office, with new social distancing measures in place. Others, for now, remain working remotely from home. The good news is that collectively, despite the unprecedented number of contacts we are continuing to receive, things are very much back to business as usual.

We have really appreciated your patience during the most challenging of times and wanted to reassurance you that our response times, however you wish to contact us, have been returned to the standard that you are entitled to expect of us.

We are here to help;

Call 03444 932323

Monday to Friday 8.30am to 8pm
Saturday 8.30am to 5pm
Sunday 9am to 5pm

Delivery

UK Online Delivery

To work safely and simply at this time and to maximise the possibility for everyone to receive what they wish, we are taking standard delivery to approximately 3 - 5 days from order, and next and nominated delivery is now available.

Our Delivery Partners

Once your order leaves our distribution centre, one of our trusted business partners will handle its journey to you. Our partners have also introduced their own stringent measures to ensure the safety, health and well-being of their employees and customers.

This of course includes social distancing. When your order arrives, you may find that extra measures are taken to ensure parcels are not handed directly to you and you are not asked to sign hand-held devices. Local couriers will instead support you remotely through this process. We have been assured that your order will be delivered as safely as possible, with risk minimised at every opportunity.

Sending Overseas

We have for now stopped taking orders for Europe and the Rest of the World. Our products are mostly perishable and until such time that we have confidence that orders are progressing without delay across borders, we decided not to risk compromising our chocolates being stored in conditions outside of our control for any length of time. We will continue to monitor the situation and re-instate this option when we are sure your chocolates will arrive in perfect condition, and without delay.

Store Reopening Update

We’re looking forward to welcoming you – and each other – back to most of our UK locations from 15th June. We know these are strange times, so we’re doing all we can to make the transition as easy and relaxed as possible, while making health and safety our top priority. That’s why we’ve gone through a risk assessment with our employees, and we’re taking the following precautions in line with government guidance.

• A limited number of guests will be allowed in our stores at any one time – staff will be on hand managing this for you
• Hand sanitiser is available for all guests and staff.
• We’ve installed Perspex screens at checkout and provided PPE for our teams.
• We prefer contactless payments; please use your card or smartphone whenever you can.
• Drinks & Ices will be served, but will be takeaway only.
• For now, our water bottle refill and reusable cup discount schemes are suspended.
• We aren’t yet able to start accepting items for our plastic recycling scheme again.
• We aren’t able to offer sampling right now.
• Our locations have been deep cleaned, and regular cleaning will take place throughout the day.

To find out whether your nearest location is open, just check our store locator. Opening hours may be a little different from usual, so contact the store directly if you need to know more.

Thanks for your understanding. We’ll see you soon – with chocolate!

Thank you for your ongoing support and understanding.

Stay safe and look after each other.