Located on South Molton Street, the store was supported by Westminster City Council’s ‘Meanwhile On: Oxford Street’ project. The project was designed to provide prime location shops for innovative brands at reduced rent using both vacant spaces and those formerly occupied by low quality businesses.
Love Cocoa was one of almost 1,000 businesses to apply and is one of the first openings.
Founded in 2016 by a descendent of the Cadbury family, Love Cocoa is a B Corp certified chocolate manufacturer that produces bars, truffles, selection boxes, biscuits and hot chocolate flakes.
With its range stocked in Liberty and Selfridges, the brand has planted 1.8m trees in North and East Africa over the past four years as part of its efforts to combat deforestation and climate change.
As well as the main Love Cocoa range, shoppers will also be able to purchase soft-serve ice cream and hot chocolate, plus items from the brand’s festive collection in the run-up to Christmas.
“We are so excited to open our first Love Cocoa store this autumn,” said Cadbury.
“We’ve always dreamed of opening a shop, and thanks to Westminster City Council and landlords Places for London, we’re now able to do so in our dream location, in our home city in London.
“Our own retail space is a real milestone for us as a brand, allowing us to share our sustainably sourced chocolate with more people than ever before, through our retail range of bars and truffles, as well as a brand new Love Cocoa hospitality offer including ice cream and hot chocolate.
“Being part of this exciting initiative gives us the opportunity to deliver unique, sensory chocolate experiences that simply can’t be achieved by shopping online. We see this as a real game changer for the business, and hope it will be the first of many stores to come.”
In other news, McCain Foods GB has issued an immediate recall notice for nine non-compliant products.