Who Owns Hotel Chocolat?

Hotel Chocolat is owned by Mars, the American confectionery and pet food group, which bought it in a deal completing in January 2024. The Companies House trail is unusually vivid: the two founders ceased as controllers on 25 January 2024 and John Franklyn Mars — one of the wealthiest people in the United States — was recorded personally as a controller of the British chocolate company. He ceased on 6 June 2025, and the register now carries a “no registrable person” statement. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Hotel Chocolat today?

The group company is HOTEL CHOCOLAT GROUP LIMITED (08612206), incorporated 16 July 2013 and registered at Mint House, Royston, Hertfordshire. The trading companies beneath it include Hotel Chocolat Limited (02805730, incorporated 1993) and Hotel Chocolat Retail Ltd.

Its PSC register today shows no controller at all — only an active statement, filed 6 June 2025, that the company knows of no registrable person or relevant legal entity.

That is the honest position of the register, and it is not the same as saying nobody owns Hotel Chocolat. Mars does. The register simply does not record it.

Ultimate parent and corporate structure

Mars, Incorporated is the ultimate parent. It is one of the largest private companies in the world, owned by the Mars family and never listed on any exchange.

Hotel Chocolat was itself a public company until the takeover, quoted on AIM as Hotel Chocolat Group plc. It is now a private limited company inside a private American group — a structure with no market disclosure at either end.

Underneath, the group runs its own cocoa estate in Saint Lucia, the Rabot Estate, along with its shops, cafés and subscription business. That degree of vertical integration — owning the farm as well as the shop — is rare among British retailers.

Major shareholders or controlling persons

No individual is a registered controller today. Between 25 January 2024 and 6 June 2025, one was: John Franklyn Mars, resident in the United States, recorded as holding more than 25% but not more than 50% of the voting rights.

Read the condition carefully. His entry covers voting rights only — not shares. He is a third-generation member of the founding family and a very large shareholder in Mars, Incorporated, and his appearance on a Hertfordshire chocolate company’s register is a consequence of how far up the PSC rules trace control: they run past the immediate buyer to the individuals who ultimately hold it.

His cessation in June 2025 does not mean he sold anything, and the point is worth being firm about because it is the most commonly misread feature of the PSC register. A cessation means a person no longer meets the conditions at that company — typically because an intermediate holding structure changed — not that they exited. Mars still owns Hotel Chocolat.

Official records and evidence

The company numbers, the founders’ entries, the John Mars entry with its dates and band, and the current statement are all Companies House records for 08612206.

Two limits, and they matter here more than on most pages. First, the register today establishes nothing about who owns Hotel Chocolat: an active “no registrable person” statement is a statement about the company’s knowledge, not evidence of an absence of owners. The identification of Mars rests on the 2023 announcement of the offer, its completion in January 2024 and the company’s own communications.

Second, Companies House does not verify what is filed. The founder’s surname is recorded as Thirwell where it is usually written Thirlwell — a small illustration that entries on the register are supplied by the company, not checked by the registrar.

Ownership history and changes

Hotel Chocolat was founded by Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, who had previously run a business selling mints to companies and moved into chocolate in the late 1990s. It floated on AIM in 2016.

• 26 June and 26 July 2017 — Peter Mark Harris and Angus Thirwell each notified at more than 25% but not more than 50% of shares and votes.
• 25 January 2024 — both cease; John Franklyn Mars is notified. This is the Mars takeover, agreed in November 2023 at a reported £534m.
• 6 June 2025 — John Mars ceases; the “no registrable person” statement replaces him.

Two founders holding roughly a quarter to a half each is a classic founder-controlled structure. Their simultaneous cessation on a single day is the signature of a completed takeover, and it is the clearest evidence on the register that the company changed hands.

Several Hotel Chocolat subsidiaries were dissolved through 2025 and 2026 as the group was tidied up under its new owner — routine post-acquisition housekeeping rather than any retreat from the business.

Related companies and brands

Mars owns Mars, Snickers, Twix, Milky Way, Bounty, Galaxy, Maltesers, Skittles, Wrigley’s, Extra and Orbit in confectionery, and Pedigree, Whiskas, Royal Canin and the Banfield and VCA veterinary businesses outside it. Mars is, by revenue, at least as much a pet care company as a chocolate one.

Hotel Chocolat now sits alongside all of them, though it continues to trade as a premium brand at some distance from the mass-market bars.

It is not connected to Cadbury, which belongs to Mondelez, nor to Nestlé, Lindt or Thorntons — all separately owned and covered elsewhere on this site. Nor, despite the name, is it a hotel.