British confectionery business Pure Heavenly – a revolutionary dairy-free chocolate with only 1.2-per-cent sugar – has achieved tremendous YTD growth of 262 per cent (+£0.77m) after expanding its commercial team and releasing new product ranges.

Pure Heavenly appeared on BBC TV show Dragons’ Den receiving three offers and being praised by Peter Jones as “the best chocolate I’ve tried in a long time”. Despite this, founder Stephen Conway, decided to reject the offer and go it alone due to the contract terms. And after a rocky few years, there is now clearly light at the end of the tunnel.

Strong ecommerce sales

The successful performance came amid expansion of the commercial team, with Andrew Duncan, – previously employed at Lumity – joining as Head of Marketing, and specialist digital agency, Nouveaux Media, joining as the firm’s paid media partner. 

To date, e-commerce trade has led Pure Heavenly’s impressive growth – boosted by a range of new dark chocolate flavours, gifts and members club subscription.

Commenting on the recent success and appointments, founder Mr Conway remarked that it had been “quite daunting” to turn down the Dragons’ offer. “But I believed in my vision – of making delicious chocolate for everyone to enjoy – too much to compromise it for investment,” he told Food & Beverage Networker. 

“I’m absolutely ecstatic to see the growth of our business, which makes me excited for our future – not only for us, but for our customers and our future employees as we expand,” he added.

Plans to expand in physical retail

Amidst the strong ecommerce growth, Pure Heavenly has now turned its sights to expanding the availability of its products in physical retail. 

The business very recently gained its SALSA accreditation, with the hope of making Pure Heavenly Chocolate more accessible to consumers that aren’t online but whom still have a need for low-sugar, ‘free-from’ chocolate.

As 2021 continues, Pure Heavenly has exciting plans ahead, and while this innovative UK firm has demonstrated that there is life after Dragons’ Den, its story is just at the beginning.

https://pureheavenly.com