PRESS RELEASE

4^th October 2009 – Immediate Release

Lick the Spoon Opens it’s new Corsham Chocolate Factory!

Wiltshire Chocolatier Lick the Spoon opened their new Chocolate Factory in Corsham, Wiltshire this week. The factory was a year in the making and allows the Chocolatier to meet the growing demand for it’s award winning handmade chocolates. The company was founded three years ago by chef and mother of two Diana Short.

Lick the Spoon have employed two new trainee Chocolatiers including Master Chef professional quarter finalist Jamie Barnett and new talent Kathryn Holmes. “Jamie’s Michelin training is crucial to maintaining our high standards of handmade production,” explained Diana, “whilst Kathryn is a talent in the making, an exceptional palate with a real passion for the produce of Wiltshire and the West Country”.

The two new trainees have hit the ground running as delays in the factory completion and the delivery of new Italian Chocolate tempering machines meant the company has just one week to fulfill a large Christmas order for Selfridges.

“I have to create a giant chocolate Jack and the beanstalk to form the centre piece for Selfridges Oxford Street store Christmas launch next week,” described Diana. “Everything is coming together at the last minute…fingers crossed!”

As part of their expansion Lick the Spoon are opening their first shop in Cirencester before Christmas. They also want to attract high quality farm shops and delicatessens as new stockists and have lowered their wholesale chocolate prices. “Until now we have been unable to fulfill the demand for our chocolates and were restricted by our small batch sizes,” explained Diana. “We now have the capacity and the ideal opportunity to partner with independent retailers who share our passion for the finest handmade chocolates”.  

Lick the Spoon chocolates can also be bought online from their website. “We had to upgrade our web server to cope with the huge increase in demand we saw at Easter”, says Diana, who’s appearance on the Alan Titchmarsh show caused their website to crash with over a million hits in two days.

“It’s such an exciting year for Lick the Spoon… I can’t believe we’ve built our own chocolate factory”!