York Cocoa Works

When Sophie Jewett first arrived in York as a university student, the whole city smelled like chocolate.  As a lifelong chocolate lover, however, she was disappointed she couldn’t, somehow, engage with it.

As she became more involved in the Slow Food movement - a celebration of provenance, tradition and responsible production, the total opposite of Fast Food - she wondered why a city with such rich chocolate heritage wasn’t shouting about it.  Working with local food festivals made her even more determined.

In 2010, she left her job and started making chocolate in her own kitchen.  Two years later, the city hosted its first Chocolate Festival – and, incredibly, all the chocolate available was imported.  “We were surrounded by legacy but had to rely on Belgian products. It felt like such a missed opportunity.”

Becoming a Chocolate Maker - Not Just a Chocolatier

At the time, the UK had no chocolate makers - only chocolatiers, who work with pre-made chocolate. She wanted to work directly with cocoa beans.

“I'm a chocolate lover who wanted to eat good chocolate and found a chocolate industry that didn't represent the things that I wanted to invest my energies into or, as a consumer, buy in to."

“We wanted to reclaim chocolate as a crafted food, not just a commodity.  It wasn’t easy because the industry is so secretive.  There was no equipment, no training and no openness.  Nearly all of the world’s cocoa is controlled by a handful of corporations.  Supply chains are centralised and resistant to change.  It was like independent brewing before craft beer - except in chocolate, the revolution hadn’t begun.”

Building a Meaningful Business

It’s not about fast returns.  It’s about building something resilient - an ecosystem of people, purpose and production.

“We think long term,” Sophie says.  “We make decisions based on what matters for our team, our community and the people we work with around the world - not just what boosts this quarter’s figures.

“It would be very easy for us to fill products full of sugar and to sell products cheaper, but that's not necessarily a good thing from a health perspective.  We could have looked at changing things like our cocoa butter and going to cheaper ingredients, but we've said, no.  People look to us to create a better system for making chocolate - and that's how we want to be, to hold ourselves accountable and to be trusted.”

That thinking touches everything, from staff development to supplier relationships. Apprenticeships and investing in future generations are part of the culture.  So is transparency.  Their production space operates as an open centre, where customers and partners can see exactly how things are made.

However, it’s more complex than one might imagine.  Their busiest time of year – Christmas - accounts for around 90% of their annual demand.  And their beans can take eight months to arrive.

“We’re currently waiting on beans we sourced six months ago.  That’s what we’ll be using at Christmas.  It’s a supply chain built on trust and patience.  It's not about buying the cheapest or the fastest.  It's about developing those working relationships with cocoa growers to enable them to do what is best for their environment.”

Leading with Transparency and Integrity

That long view applies to packaging too.  Several years ago, they made the decision to remove plastic entirely.  It tripled their costs, but it aligned with their values and the expectations of their customers.

“This industry is full of smoke and mirrors,” she says. “Brands say one thing and do another.  For us, it’s the opposite.”

They work directly with growers in places like Colombia, Sierra Leone and the Solomon Islands.  Each origin brings its own story, flavour profile and relationships.  But they all connect back to a bigger ambition - to build a more equitable, transparent cocoa industry.

Measuring Success Beyond Profit

While the last five years have been “volatile” for all businesses, with the fallout from the pandemic, Sophie has never waivered from her core belief of running a meaningful enterprise.

For York Cocoa Works, success is not defined by scale or exposure.  It’s about being able to buy more cocoa, support more farmers and invest in their team’s skills and wellbeing.  Instead of reacting to seasonal trends, they’ve focused on consistency and clarity, offering fewer products, but made better.

It’s also about community education.  They host events, run training and invite the public into their world.

“People need to understand where chocolate really comes from.  Who grows it.  What it takes to make it well.  And why that matters.”

Their long-term aim is to become not just a chocolate maker, but a learning centre for cocoa - a hub for knowledge, training and impact that ripples through the wider sector.

Future Vision 

“We need to buy more cocoa beans and continue building long-term relationships with our farmers and traders to have more impact.  This is part of the journey between us being chocolatiers versus chocolate makers, having a much stronger commitment to the quality of materials coming in.  The objective is about empowering communities that are doing great things in the world of cocoa to stand out.  To have a meaningful impact, we need to make sure that we're looking across the whole year for our cocoa needs, because these farmers are growing things with a very long lead time.

So we are in the process of growing and increasing our market reach with our core range, our hot chocolate range, and will share that with wholesalers, who've been asking us for exactly this for many years.

These things always take much longer than you think that they will.  And sometimes you do have to be happier with progress, rather than full achievement.  It's like that 1% rule. If you just improve something 1%, then it all eventually adds up.”

Advice for other Entrepreneurs

“You have to have meaning behind your business, a genuine vision.  Business is hard so you need more than money as your motivation.

“Share your ‘why’.  Be clear about your purpose and stay open to collaboration.  That’s how the right people find you.

“And have deeper conversations, ones where goals are aligned before partnerships are formed.  Too many collaborations fail because they’re rushed, without a shared understanding of what success looks like.”

Creating a Stronger, More Purpose-led Regional Business Economy

“It takes a whole ecosystem to support business success.  We need a commitment from the public sector, local authorities, universities and larger organisations with significant purchasing power to be able to share this commitment to our local community.  They need to understand, support and committ to the sustainable practices of small businesses.”

For York Cocoa Works, the journey has taken longer than expected.  In part, because they refused to cut corners.  And because every evolution, whether it’s sourcing sustainable materials or refining packaging systems, takes time.

“But that’s the point,” Sophie adds.  “This isn’t about chasing perfection.  It’s about ongoing progress.  Doing what you can with what you have and making space for continual improvement.”