Case study, Retail
Hotel Chocolat: bespoke cork for a US store roll-out
For the fit-out of its US stores, beginning in Chicago and rolling out across the States, Hotel Chocolat wanted a material that did more than decorate. We developed a bespoke cork, from our Classic Cork range, chosen for one striking quality: it looks like melted chocolate.
- Client
- Hotel Chocolat
- Sector
- Retail, store fit-out
- Location
- Chicago, USA, first of a US roll-out
- Material
- Bespoke cork (Classic Cork range): solid slab + thin roll, lacquered
- Application
- Visual-merchandising units & counter cladding
The brief
Hotel Chocolat needed an on-brand, distinctive material for its US store programme that would work across multiple surfaces, from fixtures to counters, and tell the brand’s story at a glance. It had to be flexible enough to build with, clad with, and wrap around.
The material: cork that looks like melted chocolate
We developed a bespoke product from our Classic Cork range, combining a solid cork slab with a thinner cork roll. The slab gives structure for fixtures and units; the roll clads and wraps surfaces and counters. It was chosen for its natural movement and tone, which genuinely resemble melted chocolate, and once lacquered, the resemblance is uncanny.
Slab and roll: fixtures, VM units and counters
Rather than treating the cork as a backdrop, Hotel Chocolat used it to build and clad the visual-merchandising units and to clad the counters, making the material itself part of the in-store storytelling.
Why cork, for a chocolate brand
The fit runs deeper than looks. Cork is harvested from the bark of the cork oak without felling the tree, a renewable, regenerative, carbon-negative material with a real sustainability story. That sits naturally alongside Hotel Chocolat’s own ethical-cocoa narrative: two natural materials, both grown and harvested with care. The result is a fit-out where the floor and fixtures reinforce the brand rather than simply decorating it.
A US roll-out
Beginning in Chicago, the bespoke cork is being specified across Hotel Chocolat’s US store programme. For US specifiers, our cork carries both EN and ASTM test data and full sustainability documentation, see our LEED & WELL credentials.