Luxury British chocolatier and cocoa grower, Hotel Chocolat, has been named as the British brand most likely to be recommended to friends and family in the UK.  The research, carried out by Bain & Co surveyed 6,000 British shoppers in June 2011 and covered 350 brands across the shopping spectrum, using Net Promoter® Score (NPS), a common measure of customer loyalty.

Overall, Hotel Chocolat placed fourth in the Top 10 Most Advocated Brands and was the only British brand to make the list – finishing behind such illustrious names as Kerastase, Mercedes and Apple iPhone.  In the chocolate sector Hotel Chocolat finished in first place.

Angus Thirlwell, Hotel Chocolat CEO said, “I’m thrilled that we feature on the list of most advocated brands in the UK – for your customers to recommended you to their friends and family is the greatest accolade a company can hope for.  Our entire company ethos revolves around making our customers happy with exciting products and a distinctly British brand – it’s great to know that we’re on the right track!”

-ENDS-

For press information, please contact Serena Fidgett at Hotel Chocolat:

pr@hotelchocolat.co.uk or phone 01763 257 766/07885 706 005

About Hotel Chocolat

British cocoa grower and luxury chocolatier, Hotel Chocolat was founded in 2004 with a mission to make chocolate exciting again. Authenticity, originality and ethics are central to the brand and this, combined with its knowledge and experience as a cocoa grower on its Saint Lucian plantation, The Rabot Estate, puts it firmly in a class of its own.  Hotel Chocolat has boutiques in all major cities throughout the UK, concessions in John Lewis stores nationwide and shops in the USA. In 2011 Hotel Chocolat opened its first real hotel in the West Indies, which is also home to the pioneering Boucan Restaurant - the world’s first restaurant devoted to ‘cacao cuisine’. Recent awards include several wins at ‘The Great Taste Awards 2011’, number one spot in ‘The Sunday: Times Fast Track 100’, as well as being one of the UK’s prestigious ‘CoolBrands’ for the fourth year running. www.hotelchocolat.co.uk

Notes to Editor

<!--Bain & Company, the global business consulting firm (www.bain.com), recently surveyed 6,000 UK shoppers in partnership with The Times. Representative of the UK population, the survey covered shoppers’ behaviour across mass, premium and luxury price points in 17 product and services categories. These categories account for almost two thirds of all UK discretionary spending, and include fashion, beauty, food, alcohol, personal technology, restaurants and cars.

The Net Promoter® Score (NPS) of a company is a common measure of customer loyalty and is calculated by taking the percentage of customers who are promoters (P) and subtracting the percentage who are detractors (D), based on their response to the ‘Ultimate Question:’ “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or a colleague?” Responses are measured on a scale of 0-10; 9 and 10 are promoters, 7 and 8 are passives and 0-6 are detractors. Companies that use the score find a tight link between profitable growth and NPS.
Net Promoter® is a registered trademark of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.