Maker Spotlight: Hollychocs

Hollychocs produce incredible handmade chocolates from their base at Poulshot Farm in Devizes.

We caught up with owner and chocolate engineer Holly Garner to learn more about her journey from Cadbury’s to her own business.

What triggered the move from working somewhere like Cadbury’s to starting out on your own?

I wanted to set up a company where I was really able to control the supply chain. Cadbury’s is such a big organisation and there are so many people in different seats, so you’re only focused on what you’re doing and not the picture as a whole. Instead, I wanted to know exactly where my cocoa has come from and be able to hand make everything. I’ve gone from making 1.2 million Wispa bars a day to maybe 200 chocolates, so it’s a very different scale! 

How does it feel to be able to have that control and being your own boss? 

Well, you have less team members around you, and now I have to wear about 20 different hats – I’m quality inspector, production operator, accountant, marketeer, all in one. It’s less “how big are the bubbles in the Wispa bar” and more problem solving in lots of different areas. That’s quite fun though, and seeing the process from end to end is really exciting. 

You work with lots of different local producers – have they inspired any of your flavours?

One of our biggest sellers is our chocolate honeycomb and we make that with actual honey – lots of companies don’t, they just use a cheaper sugar or an invert sugar. Our honey comes from Potterne Honey who are just down the road, and actually, their honey inspired our Honey and Passion Fruit chocolate. The honey is so floral, and it pairs really well with a tart, citrussy passion fruit – we’ve even got little bees printed on the top! 

Otherwise, we serve tea from Tea Inc and coffee from Dusty Ape in our café, and we’ve used Scout and Sage Gin in our chocolate before as well. We love shouting about where we get things from. We didn’t do it enough in the past, but it’s amazing how many local food and drink producers we’ve got on our doorstep. 

What’s your favourite product that you’ve developed over the years? 

Well, our customers’ favourite is definitely our Icelandic Lava Salt Caramel. We’ve been making that from the very start, and it was originally just a salted caramel that we made with molasses and half the sugar of a normal caramel – so instead, there was a big focus on cream and butter. But then my husband suggested using the lava salt that my sister had brought back from Iceland and it took it to a totally different level. I love the story behind that one because between the two of us, we came to the end recipe that customers just adore. 

The Icelandic Lava Salt Caramel has won five awards, and people keep coming back for it – customers will stick their head into the factory and say, “is it available today?” And if I have to say no, they’ll come back in a couple of days and try again, it’s that popular! I love seeing people’s faces when they eat it for the first time, too. You get that moment where their eyes roll back and they’re just taking the moment in and enjoying it. 

But my personal favourite is the Peanut Supreme, which we’ve just brought back after a couple of years. It’s got a layer of vanilla caramel and then a really rich peanut butter inside milk chocolate – it’s incredibly decadent and super yummy. That’s also an award-winner! 

Do you tend to rotate your flavours quite often?

We used to – we first opened in 2019, just before the lockdown, and then when that happened, we had to adapt very quickly. We created a six-flavour monthly chocolate box and kept that going for two years – every month, we’d have six totally brand new recipes! But then in 2022, people were going back to the office, purse strings were tightening and we found that subscriptions were dropping off, so we went to more quarterly changes. There will always be something different, no matter what the season! 

We’ve actually just launched the new Chocolatier Collection, which takes some of our award-winners – we’ve won 49 awards over the years, and hopefully we’ll get to 50 this year! – so we’re reintroducing some of those flavours back into one bigger box so we can keep our customers’ most loved favourites on sale all year round. 

Sounds like you have a lot of loyal customers! Do people come back time after time?

Absolutely, yes. And while spending habits have changed, we still have some amazing customers who pop in to the café regularly, and customers who have sent our chocolates to friends and family, so we’ve managed to reach people all around the country. I think there are only two postcode areas in the UK that we haven’t delivered to. 

What are you most excited about over the next few months? 

Christmas is a big one for us. We’ve just launched our advent calendars, and it’s such a nice way of having a treat just once a day. In fact, one of our customers came to see us and said, “Can I have a word outside?” and I thought, “Oh gosh, what’s going on?” She told me “I’ve lost my husband recently, and the last thing he said was to buy one of your advent calendars because we loved coming to the shop so much. And every day I have that chocolate, it brings me so much joy.” I couldn’t believe that we were able to touch someone’s life like that. So it’s more than making chocolate, it’s about making memories and celebrating. 

Where can people get their hands on some Hollychocs?

At the moment, you can come into the Beanery café or you can buy online. However, we are looking to be in more shops locally and get into more retailers, so watch this space. 

What does the Wiltshire Marque mean to you?

We’re really looking forward to building our network with the Marque – it’s going to be great to see where other producers are, and that can help with recipe ideas as well. But also, we’re a bit of a hidden gem – when you come into our shop, it’s like something you’d find in Paris and it’s like nothing else in Wiltshire. However, it’s tucked away on a farm, so we’re hoping the Wiltshire Marque will be able to give people some inspiration and pay us a visit! 

You can pick up a box of Hollychocs from the Beanery Café, or by ordering online at www.hollychocs.com

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