The confectioner pays less than its cheapest box of chocolates for full control of the joint venture.
image copyrightPhilip Toscano
Luxury confectioner Hotel Chocolat has just concluded a sweet deal – by gobbling up a cosmetics business that specialises in “cacao-powered beauty”.
The firm paid just £4 to take full control of Rabot 1745, which it set up five years ago in partnership with businessman Andrew Gerrie.
The amount is less than Hotel Chocolat’s cheapest selection box, which costs £5.
Rabot lost £400,000 last year but Hotel Chocolat says it can turn it around.
The beauty business, founded in 2016, is described as having a range of products “inspired by the wild beauty of the group’s St Lucian cacao farm and rainforest spa”.
Its range includes a variety of chocolate-themed products, from Almond Chocolat lip balm to Cacao, Almond and Coconut Three Shell Scrub.
It calls itself a “responsible, engaged business” and pledges that by the end of this year, 100% of its packaging will be compostable, reusable or recyclable.
The Hotel Chocolat group already owns 47% of Rabot, while Mr Gerrie, who is also the group’s non-executive chairman, owns 40.5%.
Mr Gerrie will receive £3 in exchange for his stake, while the remaining investors will share the other £1 between them.
“The group is well placed to leverage the value of the Rabot inventory and to further develop the brand’s intellectual property, which includes a range of high-quality beauty products which have attracted multiple awards and favourable customer reviews,” Hotel Chocolat said.
After it buys his stake in Rabot, Hotel Chocolat will pay back a £744,000 loan that Mr Gerrie provided to the beauty business.
It will give him more than 200,000 newly issued Hotel Chocolat shares, increasing his stake in the group by about 40%.
Wayne Brown, an analyst at Liberum, said the deal would help to Hotel Chocolat to differentiate itself from other chocolate brands.
He also added that it would allow operations to be integrated, which should eventually “see Rabot begin to turn a profit versus the current slight loss”.