In 2015, Indian-origin brother-sister Jay and Roopa Rawal founded The London Chocolate Company, a luxury confectionary brand which specialises in Prosecco, Gin and Tonic flavoured truffles have now launched their Vegan Chocolates. Born in Harrow, their mother came from Gujarat, while father came to the UK from Nairobi, Kenya in 1960s. Graduating from University Roopa went into business immediately, while Jay spent 10 years as an IT consultant before joining the business.
Over the past 12 months, the firm has experienced 100% increase in sales and a growing appetite from consumers across Europe, USA, Canada, UAE and Japan. Since growing their business online via Amazon Marketplace, the company is now on course to make £100k this year (year three), compared to £10k in year one.
Following their Amazon success and general consumer demand, The London Chocolate Company launched their Vegan products in March 2018, especially dark chocolate truffles with orange and coconut flavours and expanding these products due to its increasing popularity.
The duo started the London Chocolate Company brand in 2012 after identifying a niche in the confectionery marketplace for a London centric chocolate brand, utilising the skills and contacts developed during their time with the Devnaa brand to bring the concept to life.
Jay told Asian Voice, “Whilst we believe the Devnaa chocolate or the Indian sweet concept was a great idea, the overall consumer demand/marketplace was too small for an ultra-premium Indian themed confectionery product and didn’t fall in line with the larger vision we had to build a business. The London Chocolate Company is a completely separate brand to Devnaa.”
They are using the Amazon marketplace to reach a far wider audience more economically and faster than they could manage on their own. Supporting the 'Made in Britain' concept he added, “We sell premium chocolate truffles with a London centric brand, the chocolates are made in London with fairly unique flavour combinations and whilst our packaging would be cheaper if purchased in the far east we have committed to buying the packaging from a UK based manufacturer. Our product ‘carries’ the official 'Made in Britain' marque.”
