Whew! That’s the London Chocolate Show over for another year. It’s only when I get to the end of it and I’m back home with a glass of wine that I realise the hard work that’s gone into making the show a success for us.
The two weeks leading up to the show are a frenzy of production, planning and packing and the show itself is usually full-on for the 4 days. Thursday is set-up followed by the gala evening, and our first chance to see the chocolate fashion show. It’s not an evening for selling, but it is an opportunity to meet some of the London food hall buyers. The following 3 days we’re open to the public, and this year we were severely disappointed by the turnout on both Friday and Saturday. Takings were down dramatically on last year, to the extent that we weren’t sure we were going to cover our costs. Luckily Sunday was a much better day for everyone. I even got to meet Ugne from Bake Off and have another chat with Tony Rodd.
Now we’ve got a couple of weeks to restock and get ready for the busy show season. We need to make sure there’s enough of our chocolate to last people through Christmas!