Luxury chocolate retailer Rococo falls into administration

Luxury chocolate brand Rococo has gone into administration, Press Association can exclusively reveal.

The high-end chocolatier, which has five stores in central London, will now search for a buyer after bosses admitted they have been hit by “negative trading conditions”.

Rococo, which employs 66 staff according to its most recent company accounts, appointed insolvency specialists BDO LLP as administrators on Thursday May 23.

Rococo’s stores, which include its flagship site on King’s Road in Chelsea, are continuing to trade and no redundancies have yet been made.

The company was founded in 1983 by Chantal Coady when she was just 23 years old. The businesswoman launched Rococo after working in Harrods on Saturdays selling sweets and chocolates.

She has since written five books and was awarded an OBE in 2014 for “services to chocolate”.

Rococo produces luxury, ethically produced chocolate in partnership with a small cocoa farm based in Grenada.

The brand sells gift boxes and artisan chocolate, which retails at £5.95 for a 70g bar. It also produced a limited edition chocolate caviar in 2017.

On the day administrators were hired, Ms Coady tweeted: “Please say a little prayer for my first baby now, need all the positive energy we can get.

“Many thanks for your kindness and thoughts, everything is looking better this afternoon.”

BDO administrators Kerry Bailey and Danny Dartnaill are leading the search for a potential buyer for the business.

Mr Dartnaill said: “Difficult trading conditions negatively impacted the company’s working capital position and an administration was required to provide a stable financial platform to rescue the company.

“The joint administrators are continuing to trade Rococo Chocolates and are hopeful that a purchaser for the company or the business will be found.”