The luxury chocolate business: sweet tales with the owners of audreys

will and alice

Arthur: [00:00:00] Welcome everybody to today's episode at the Collective Institute of Ideas, a podcast set up to inspire people. And today we're gonna keep things sweet. We have Alice and Will Crone, who have bought a very exciting chocolate business. Last year I lived with a background in food.

Doing a number of things and then will morph in the sort of finance realm, but building fantastic ideas into different businesses. Having started his career, Morgan Stanley and then moved on to number one lounge and so house. Chocolate I hope everyone ha has a relationship with chocolate.

You obviously both. It's a big part of your world. Te tell us about the chocolate world.

Alice: Yeah, so Cho you have to love the industry. I think not just a chocolate lover, but it's quite a complicated little thing and a lot of opinions. You have to be, ev as you say, everyone likes chocolate, so you have to be a little bit like to everything with a pinch of salt. 'cause [00:01:00] everyone's got an idea.

And that can be quite overwhelming at times, I'd say. So it's geranium this or, oh, gray this, or you need to have salts caramel here, or, I don't think that one's nice. But yeah, it's a really, it's a really fun industry. It's, yeah, I like it because I feel like it brings a little bit of magic.

It can really makes someone feel good after a shit day or it can bring joy. How I see our box of chocolates, which. Are quite special. We've got recipes that date back over a hundred years. We've got customers who've been shopping with us for many generations.

And I love the idea that our box of chocolates has been on that table, whether it's Christmas, whether it's a birthday or celebration, or some sadness. I love that people are talking about Audrey's or eating a piece of us.

Arthur: So much of chocolate, and you touched on it looking, for anyone listening, please do check out or Audrey's chocolate websites. There's so many different type, moments that people have chocolate, but a big [00:02:00] part of it and a, a big part of, why people buy your chocolate seems is gifts, incredible packaging.

Really having that moment, I'm thinking it's cold outside. And you've had some maybe delicious dinner, maybe some dinner you have to be very polite about. But if Audrey's on the table, things are looking good will, so will give us a flavor, because before you weren't in the chocolate industry.

Give us a flavor of h how things have gone for you and an idea on what's been surprising. For you and maybe surprisingly exciting, how involved are you in, have you tried making the chocolate? Ha Has there been some quirks in the industry that you didn't expect to exist that do exist?

Will: Yeah, so I was new to the food world completely. And. Specific chocolate is a quite a niche within the food world. It's called a specialist area. You need to have [00:03:00] knowledge and understanding of how the chocolate making process occurs. So what, the first thing I did when I was trying to educate myself on the industry was I signed up for a two day foundation course in with with Barry Cabo.

In their bury chocolate academy, which was super useful for going through all the basics in not just classroom style, where we learned about, where does cocoa come from what's what tastes the world has for chocolate that differ from the UK to India to the us. The process from start to finish.

For the the bean, from a cocoa pod to it being, deemed chocolate. That whole process we learned about. But practically speaking it was the practical bits to where I learned how to I have an understanding of tempering chocolate and and what that means is being able to manage [00:04:00] the crystals within the chocolate so that they can be, used to, manipulated and used into chocolate pieces molded chocolate or into, in robe en robbing round like other filled elements of your chocolate and that, that's quite technical and there's more to it by the way. So doing that initial course and then giving me an understanding of the language that people use in chocolate.

Helped to start things off for me on my journey, but I would say it's been what have I not underestimated, maybe underestimated the complexity with chocolate in that , some days the temperature outside is X and even though you've got an air conditioned space. It's the temperature, the chocolate, it likes to be in a certain way.

So if it's not happy, you need to be fixing that chocolate. So on a daily basis, is the chocolate happy in the machines? It's something that we come up against, [00:05:00] particularly when it's a change of season, et cetera. And yeah, summer's become quite stressful, even again with air conditioning.

I hadn't expected how. I would usually dream of a sunny hot day. Now I am I'm nervous about it 'cause in case the chocolate melts. Yeah, it's been a real experience entering chocolate.

Arthur: I think that's such a true. Nature of everything. In life, things are a lot more complicated than we realized, right? All these products around us, where they've come from, the stories behind the innovation the history above of chocolate.

Can you, could someone take the raw ingredients and make chocolate?

Alice: Yeah,

Arthur: a lot that you can't do at home, right?

Alice: Yeah, there are hundreds of little small businesses who start out in their kitchen. So it is something that you can do at home. Definitely. And it's just about having the equipment. We don't do bean to bar, so we have an amazing partner that we work with and then they process just 'cause of the quantity that we buy in.

But [00:06:00] yeah. You read about these amazing c chocolatier who will buy in a bag. You can buy a bag off the market and then you can do the processing. It's a, you roast the, you roast the COA beans, then you do a process cake crunch them, which is like splitting the pods from the bee.

And then you can then make chocolate, add cocoa butter and add the milk. It wears. so it's quite a complicated process. What will's referring to this tempering, which is about the real shine and the snap that you get from a chocolate. So if you or if you've ever bought a bar that's got, looks like a gray mold is called blooming and it's just where the fat has come apart from the crystal.

Arthur: There's so much creativity looking at your products. Can you both give us a flavor of what you think are the reasons why people end up buying a, an item of chocolate? You've got these beautifully packaged lobster. you've got the gold coins coming up for [00:07:00] Christmas.

Will: I think it's, a lot of it is nostalgia. For these Christmas moments, these are the things that, adults have had throughout their lives. We are making the Audrey's version of a product that, is a beautiful snowman figurine. That is, is amazing and will look fantastic on your Christmas table to to eat on Christmas Day nostalgia because, they've seen that and they have those moments in the past, plus Audrey's been around for so long that a lot of our older customers come and they came here as a child.

They kept, and they've been coming their whole lives. And so we have huge loyalty and repeat in our local Brighton Hove. Residents who know and love us. And if any, don't come check us out. .

Arthur: Alice, do you have any comments to add on that?

Alice: Yeah I only from experience of building a range, would, how I would see it. Firstly because chocolate has such a broad range, something like we all eat about 12.3 kilos of chocolate a year in the uk each, so there's a lot of [00:08:00] consumption is really high. Obviously that's mass market and we play in a very small percentage of that.

And really our customers. Yeah the element of nostalgia. Will's got a really good point. And I mentioned at the beginning about generations, I think there's, we do Rosen Violets, and that's in a very quiet taste. So if you love Rosen Violet, you'll want a really good one. And we have been making that the same way.

And it seems like those generations have. If your grandmother liked a Rosen Violet, typically one of their children liked one, and then typically the grandchildren. That's what we seem to find. And then there are some families who can't stand it completely. And then, but in terms of building a range, you mentioned the lobsters.

So we, there's the seasonal kind of elements that bring joy. So whether that's Halloween, whether that's Mother's Day and kind of catering to those moments. And then there's the selection box, which is just. Gorgeous. And I always see it as like a, it's like a box of [00:09:00] jewels. We brush our chocolates.

All our chocolates are different shades. It's different sizes. 'cause they are handmade and every chocolate looks different. It's quite a, it is quite an art to try and fit them all in a box. So when you open that box and they shine and pop at you, it's a wonderful sharing moment

, The bestselling by lines are the new hedgehogs over the frogs, and then the lobsters are in between. But yeah I when we built the range, we just wanted to have some accessibility, and those smaller figurines and, really admiring really beautiful craft in terms.

How the actual chocolate looks, how it tastes, and then yeah, it's packaged beautifully and then it's something a little bit more affordable than a 30 pound box of chocolates.

Arthur: What is so of note is just how special those boxes of chocolate are. How you can personalize them. With those boxes, it's not, I guess what's quite nice as a product is that, it doesn't have to be consumed over an evening. Right?

People could keep that for, for a few months and have one a day, whatever. There must be so many [00:10:00] stories.

So what what I'm intrigued by, people have, c choc on in lots of different occasions, but it obviously does generally give you a kick.

You have a chocolate you've got an upper ahead of you. Are there moments that you feel the distribution of chocolate has failed. , We need to be having chocolate in certain times or places that doesn't currently exist.

Will: I think people can have chocolate at times whenever they want, probably not in the morning. I find but we are not, I don't, we're certainly not concerned about, or the lack of the market for demand for chocolate. We don't do anything with regards particularly healthy type products at the moment.

We're just focusing on, indulgence. Gifting luxury and keeping it traditional so people can have what they've always had, which is how made English chocolate.

Alice: I think the interest in the sustainability side of obviously raw ingredients in terms of the cocoa is [00:11:00] quite a complicated area in terms of sustainability debate, where it's grown in the world, areas of conflict, areas of, huge disparity really. So I think that is becoming more and more of interest to people, especially as we're seeing, the mainstream lot, cadburys, et cetera, moving to more of a composite chocolate. So technically they can't call it chocolate anymore, so they're reducing the cocoa content so much and I think that is gonna become spark more of an interest of like how that's made and why that's the case and what's happening globally.

I see our, as I said, like the top. There's probably 5% of the UK that really appreciate what we are trying to do or yeah, the luxury market is as such. But I do also, we've tried to build a range that if you we talked about pick your own, we have a tiny box.

So if you wanted to have something amazing for yourself versus, a huge giftable moment where [00:12:00] there's 30 people for Christmas lunch, but yeah, in terms of gaps, I do think this sort of pickup of really delicious self-indulgence is a big area, but I don't see, I don't envision us being in necessary supermarkets yet.

Just because of price margin, how we make chocolate, where we're sourcing it from. But it's not off the cards, it's just at the moment the pricing for them will be unachievable. And also the margins for us. In our production team we employ 54 people including ourselves, and half of those make chocolate and half of those pack and do work kind of warehouse.

And they're hugely gifted individuals. Hugely, highly skilled. We don't have much machinery. You'd walk around the factory and there's just hardly anything. But I do see us growing. Sustainably in a way that there is so much demand for this kind of luxury, truly gorgeous, thoughtful beautiful [00:13:00]boxes of chocolate that you can't get elsewhere.

Will: I also think that the UK chocolate market generally is premiumizing because the cost of chocolate, I'm sure you're aware and your listeners are aware, but there was a major increase in the cost of cocoa in 2024. Where the kind of trading price of the London terminal increased like threefold between like January and June, 2024.

And it's stabilized since there and come down somewhat. But has it reached a new normal that's roughly two, two and a half times higher than it ever was before? And what that means is the, cheaper guys or the discount end, the value end of the market are doing what Alice said, doing composite or chocolate flavored, as was in the press very recently with Penguin and the middle guys have become quite expensive.

And luxury you're gonna spend on chocolate. I think spending on something really special with a. With a really great story, handmade [00:14:00] story and a kind of sustainability and angle is what people are wanting to do. And we've seen interest in our brand and product, but also in the market generally.

There's a lot of European businesses that have luxury like Newhouse for instance that are expanding in the UK and there are others as well. Coming over to the UK to. To see that whilst 20, 30 years ago it was Thorntons and then maybe Hotel Shockla came on the scene.

There's a lot of other people out there now in the UK market, and I think there's a lot more premiumization to come to.

Arthur: Is there a word for someone who's an absolute expert for chocolate that could probably, get quite close on the percentage of chocolate?

And if so, tell us about that kind of person and have you come across people who are always emailing you being like, oh, have you tried this? Have you tried that? Like just the absolute obsessives on the consumer side.

Alice: So there are kind of chocolate experts in the industry, definitely [00:15:00] any of the buyers, chocolate buyers who've been in there for a long time. And you can get certified for kind of chocolate tastings and any awards global awards. That's kind of a. Like commercial side of it. And then, yeah, I think you've definitely got concierge, like you've got good wine, but I think they're more interested in really interesting areas of the world in terms of tasting.

So you might do single origin bars and what does the Costa Rican farm a taste like versus farm B? And that's an interesting area. And then I think I'm seeing, we're seeing a lot of luxury retailers are definitely having a range of, single origin bars. And. I think as people start drinking less, there might be an interest, a bit like coffee, a kind of surge of this sort of area in terms of yeah, sparking interest from around the world.

And I know people have tried to start like chocolate subscriptions and things of bars which could be interesting.

We have definitely some customers who and it is amazing who they feel [00:16:00] so part of Audrey's that they want to feedback to everything that we do. Or, one batch tastes different and sometimes that happens, as. We are relying on people to make recipes, someone's taste buds can be different from others and we might, and I will alluded to moisture and heat and yeah, definitely.

For example, how we make our fondants and we've not yet gone into really how we make chocolate, but that of such, we use starch molding and if the starch becomes slightly wet because we've had a really hot humid day, or it's just rain throughout the summer. Those fondants behave differently and they might be a bit more crystallized before, or the text is different or they might take longer to set, which then yeah, so there's lots of complication but also joy in the craft that we see.

And but yeah, we do get emails. And we've changed chocolate in the last year, which was obviously a bit of a worry. And we've now, in September we came out to tell everyone we'd done that [00:17:00] and I was quite worried about our regulars, but we did get a phone call from one gentleman and he he buys our vena mints, which are really a dark chocolate with a peppermint cream, big one.

And he rang and he said, I think you've changed a chocolate, but I do like it. So that was. A bit of a nerve wracking thing because, if someone's eaten that chocolate for 50 years, it's it's a bit of a nerve wracking thing. But we felt it was very important to, as will mentioned, move with the time.

Suddenly we can afford these kind of very special chocolates and curvatures that we would never have been able to before, based on what's happening in the market.

Arthur: And do either of you feel, product categories change and you're seeing a lot of kind of perhaps called functional drinks that make you feel focus, et cetera, et cetera, or calm you down. Do you want to be going down that route, down that space? Are there some ideas that you have perhaps for [00:18:00]the future where you're just like, Ooh, no one's tried this but may maybe that's gonna be us.

Alice: I I think the world has a funny way of coming back around. I think it would be a bit of a distraction, if I'm honest, for us to go into that space based on trying to grow this kind of. True luxury giftable. I think there's definitely, our, there's so much research about just good dark chocolates.

Very good for you. We have some of the best curvature in the world, therefore our dark chocolate bar, we don't need to add more like mushrooms or oils to make it very healthy anyway. So yeah, I think I definitely want to explore. Looking at kind of single origin or our own blends of chocolate and seeing, talking about health benefits or looking at that sort of thing, reducing our, reliance on milk, et cetera.

But since COVID, the world has done a loop, so [00:19:00] vegans, were on the rise and everyone's eating meat again, starting to think about eating meat, good meat. They want to know where it's come from. It is really important that we know where our chocolates from, and I think that's important.

What we're seeing is that it's important to our customer as well, and as the next generation of customers coming up who will start buying from us. I think people do care more about that side of things.

Will: I would say never to, to anything. And. Yes. The sort of good for you or better for you kind of category is certainly seen like growth and particularly on the more value end of the chain. But what we do is classic luxury. And for now we are busy enough and we have enough products and complexity in our company to not be doing that.

But yeah, for sure. We watch what's going on, trends in the market, and we could develop a new product in the future. But it's just not on the roadmap for the next kind of 12 [00:20:00] months, I'd say.

Arthur: And health benefits of chocolate. you don't really need twist arms to, to get people to eat chocolate. A lot of people don't know about chocolate in terms of how it affects people. Can you fill in the gap?

Will: There is some studies that are coming out about the benefits of dark chocolate and how you can have it in the morning and it makes you feel great the rest of the day. Just shavings of cocoa powder into your morning milkshake. Or your kind of your NutriBullet smoothie and yeah I've read about those, but yeah, that kind of veers away from our wheelhouse a little

we, we aren't low sugar when it comes to our products. Unfortunately they are high sugar and they are special moments. And they're not better for you. But they're good for your, positive mental health and indulgence and also gifting to your loved ones and friends

Arthur: Give us a sense of what it's like to work together. Because you both got married, was it five years ago?

Will: It's six and a half years.

Arthur: So you are both married. You bought this really exciting business with [00:21:00] amazing branding. What an exciting part of the journey, to be on together.

How do you form that best team together?

Alice: It's been really fun to work together and actually we are as much ying and yang in business as we are in our marriage as well. So we have this partnership where we are quite different, but then have very similar values and similar goals.

And I think that. That really helped. So we were very, when we started, we were very much clear on who's looking after what. So Will is manager, director, but that falls over the finance and the business day to day. And then I look after the creative side of things, but we'll of course needs to be involved in the product development and the branding and the website and the e-commerce as well as.

Will: Operations.

Alice: in that side of things, the running day to day and quality control and things, so we're, it is intense, super intense, but

Will: We do, we, [00:22:00] we've had a lot of advice about staying in your lane and we do try to do that. And I hope in the future that will be somewhat easier, but given that it's a small business growing business we do overlap sometimes. But yeah, in terms of like packaging design and things like that, Alice took that and you said earlier.

We bought this business with, we know, with the packaging we have now. That was a lot of work to create and do. And that was 12 months and that was all Alice's thing. And it's been a great result for us

I think our customers on the whole are pretty happy and our new customers are happy as well with what, what's being produced. So packaging design and things like that is, I don't get too involved in that. I think I slow things down and say the wrong thing. Yeah.

Alice: We did have, when we were trying to finish, because it was so intense at the end of the rebrand, and it was like May, April, and I just had to say you, you're just. Taking weeks away because you are, we are still start, it was the [00:23:00] bars. Were so lucky 'cause we worked with these amazing partners and if anyone wants good designers, gis, highly recommend Dozy Studio.

And we had this amazing partnership with them, Ella and Shar, who run it. And we, yeah, we got to about, it must have been like March and we looked at the bars and Will and our chairman were like. I didn't like them at all. And then I was like, oh God, I dunno if I have the mental energy or capacity to deal with this because, so anyway, I lay everything out on the floor and we did it.

So that's how we get through it. And then we ended up, the bars are what they are and that's what they were proposed as.

Will: It was a journey.

Alice: has been a journey, but there's been lots of good and Will brings. Like a real, with the branding, I always get a bit carried away 'cause I would have a million skews of different things.

And it's important to stay focused on a few different things and not just have every single thing available because as you said at the beginning, we do have this customizable box where [00:24:00] people can pick their own chocolates. We've got this extensive list of chocolates, so we shouldn't necessarily need to have loads and loads of other things.

In terms of so that, yeah, so we work very well as a team 'cause complimentary

Arthur: That's really interesting. And two, two things. I had a conversation with a previous guest talking about conflict and actually how, challenging each other is such a source of great value creation, right? For learning about ourselves, learning about other people, or achieving great outcomes for a project business,

have you got any learnings to share around what you've learned on how to do that well? And then secondly does the business book shut on the weekends? Do you have a view on that?

Alice: So I think we are a growing business, really. So it's it's super intense. What we're trying to do is super exciting, which makes it really hard not to talk about at weekends. I said to Will actually, funny enough you say it, because we had a weekend apart wheel on his brother's stag and I was here and it felt a bit like a holiday for me, even [00:25:00] though we are not I was looking after our children, which obviously hard work on my own, but because we're not talking about work and getting really stressed at each other, I think.

We, we have learned a lot and we've still got a lot to learn in terms of how you have that respite, and I think we'll definitely get there. We're only 18 months in, I think by this time next year it should be a lot easier. We've now done the rebrand as our second question. We

Will: I would add Arthur that you are currently speaking to us in our busiest month of the whole calendar year. At the point at which I would say given our businesses. Larger on the wholesale side currently than on the on the direct side, this is probably the busiest week of the whole year.

So when Alice says getting stressed it's not an all year round thing, it's just a specific, this time of year thing. And and we try to manage it. I just wanted to put that context to your listeners.

Alice: You are right Arthur, it's like growing a business is really intense with any two business partners and then you are [00:26:00] bringing always it home, but actually it's really nice because sometimes you need to continue talking about it, even though it's 9:00 PM at night.

I've enjoyed it. I think Will has as well,

Will: Yeah, in terms of conflict resolution between us we just try and have the conversation. We like to talk on walks. We don't have we don't have many formal meetings partly because we're just busy doing things and partly because the space that we have doesn't allow for a meeting currently.

But we in the future potentially there will be space for that. But yeah we just try and talk things through and reach conclusion on them.

Arthur: you've got a huge team. What have you learned or do you have anything to share around getting people on board with your vision?

Will: We introduced monthly town halls. Pretty much immediately we go to talk to each of the teams at the sites and talk them through what's going on in the business. What projects have we got going on? How are we performing generally what's in the pipeline, any [00:27:00] new starters or leavers birthdays and things like that.

We did an employee survey. Quite early on to try and get a gauge of what we were doing right, what we're doing wrong. Probably after about six months, I think probably this time last year actually, and key, the key thing we got back was communication. So we're just trying to really let the team know not only what our vision is and was and what we told them when we set out and we took over the company, but continuing to just keep them updated on what we're trying to do and why.

Not just throwing a load of numbers at staff, but just trying to explain from the heart and the reasons for our decisions and why we're doing things

Alice: We've learned in terms of the town halls, they really to feel part of the journey and why certain decisions are made and. Why they're not, our office is in the manufacturing site, so we have a lot more day, like day-to-day small talk with the [00:28:00] team, this side.

I want to create a culture which is good to work with. We've definitely made some mistakes along the way, but, I want people to want to be part of the journey and like to come to work and yeah.

Not just think, oh gosh, they're growing and that means working harder. It's like how you make sure they, it's all good. If we grow, they grow. Still learning, but I think communication is the big thing.

Arthur: I want two moments from each of you. One which symbolizes. You in your absolute best of best where you are doing something you really enjoy or you've achieved something that you really feel aligned with for the business.

And then secondly, are there some times where you've made a mistake that you, that you are happy to share about where is just reminded you of the, that the journey is human and almost. To, to be growing, you have to be acknowledging that the mistakes are part of that process.

Will: For me, a little bit more boring. I really enjoy lots of different elements to what I do ranging [00:29:00] from all the e-commerce things, the website what's the unit user journey like, and things like that. And also acquiring customers and that process from from advertising through to like operations and how we make things and how we can maybe find some efficiencies.

But I would say. Most recently. And what I do really enjoy is trying to find ways that we do things admin wise to systemize. And that's been something that we've brought in. We've got systems in place for hr we've and that's, being able to, it speed us up when it comes to things like payroll.

We've done, we've got systems in place now for inventory management, so it's. It stops all these manual counts where people going off of ticking a pen and paper. And then we've also obviously got a system in for our tills and our e-commerce that we didn't, the business didn't used to have.

So three systems that we've brought in that just helps speed things up and record things better. And whilst that's a bit of a more boring thing for someone like me with [00:30:00] a more of a finance sort of FD background these things are super important for a successful business. Those are the kind of things that I enjoy doing.

Alice. Slightly different. I imagine.

 A is cap capital expenditure decision I made around increasing capacity of a certain room to make things however, rushed into decision somewhat and yeah, we now have the capacity in that room to make, probably double what we can make.

But the issue is the room isn't very big and we would have to, we would have to run 24 hour shifts in that room to make use of the full space that we'd spent the money on to create in terms of the racks. So we're not doing that. We're not at that stage. So yeah, it was a little bit, ambitious, shall we say, to have increased capacity in that particular area.

Alice: I think that is the big thing though, because we are a small business, you are making decisions, 25 decisions that know more than that a day and it's fast and you have to make a decision quickly [00:31:00] and sometimes it's the wrong one. I personally think we are, some, there's an element that we need to slow down a bit because.

Definitely when we did the rebrand, we launched over a hundred SKUs, which are individual products and definitely made some mistakes with backpacks, which then have cost us money to relabel, things like that. And I think to sometimes to just slow down or really think about, some of the decisions you make are really good, but I think because you are making so many a day and.

Quite quickly. And then because we're, firing off each other, you think the other one's responsible. And I think that's sometimes happens in a small business. On the other hand, how cool is it that we can make a decision that quickly and we're not in a corporate environment where it would take six months to get that piece of packaging signed off.

I don't know. It's it has its wins, it has its card, but sometimes it can be costly. Yeah. And in terms of what I love I just love the day to day. I love the [00:32:00] business and I love kind of retail ent of it, and I love fulfilling orders. I do get a bit anxious and I see the orders coming in and how we're gonna fulfill them, but that's just about thoughtful planning and we're

Will: It's a nice problem to have Alice when we have lots of orders, which we currently do. It's fantastic and thank you. Thank you to our customers for those orders.

Arthur: Yeah so listeners, please don't buy anything. Just, yeah.

Alice: So you won't get anything? No.

Arthur: yeah. We're now gonna move to quickfire questions. On reflection, hearing about. You both talk about, some areas where things, mistakes have been made or the areas you find interesting. It really paints more of a detailed picture in the nuance nuanced parts of your business.

Quick, far questions. Now there's two of you. So we are gonna, we're gonna mix things up. So we're gonna have two things that give each of you joy. We'll ping pong it go for it.

Will: Spending time with family and children and [00:33:00] playing sport.

Alice: Our children coming home to very excited children after a long day and a fun bath time. And yeah, getting my walk to work bring me a lot of joy. I have 20 minute walk.

Arthur: It is

Will: On the beach.

Alice: A small thing,

Arthur: It is, it's the small things, isn't it? A mantra from Alice that you want to embrace now would be

Alice: embrace the chaos in terms of, it feels really chaotic in terms of these hundreds of orders coming in. It's all, but it's good. It's like I need to embrace that. It feels very chaotic, but it isn't. It's like we, we've planned this all year.

Arthur: Will

and I have known each other for. Through the years. Now, what's really clear about you is just how driven you are, and you're a very caring bloke. But I think what won't be a surprise for me or anyone that knows you is how you are. You are a great listener and you are really keen to learn from [00:34:00]anyone and you're never someone who it takes a view, oh, I have nothing to learn from this situation.

You're always taking the view that you have something to learn, which I really admire about you. Can you give us an example? You would've chatted to so many people to get advice for what you're doing now, but could you share a bit of useful advice that you've been given?

Will: I have a business mentor who I speak to on, regularly quarterly, . And he gives me lots of good advice which I listen to, and I love. I love hearing well, there is a point where you need to just get on and do your work, but it's always great to, to talk through issues, problems.

So yeah, in terms of advice from him I would say that I, talking about those town halls and communication one of the issues that we had was and this is quick file. I'll try and be as fast as

Arthur: No. Yeah. No, this is.

Will: initially we revealed quite a lot of information about how we were trading and things like that.

And actually we started to notice that people [00:35:00] were getting bored or just lost lack of interest and things like that. So I just, I said this to him, I said what do you think we should do? And he's just just keep it really high level and stick to the key themes and the strategy and and and also update the staff about things that matter to them, when are you going on holiday? What's happening with the free teas and coffees, really basic stuff. Talk, think about, put yourself in the shoes of a member, of staff that you are talking to. What matters to them? What they care about. Obviously going to work, being around nice people, being in a nice environment and getting paid at the end of the month, all those sorts of things.

Think about it from their shoes. They don't really need to be bothered with all the business issues that you are having. They just, they want to know the key things. And that was a really good piece of advice, which is don't overcomplicate it. Talk to your staff and tell them, all the things that they want to know and things like that.

So that's, [00:36:00] that was a really good piece of advice.

Arthur: Alice, I want to get a sense of what is your dream with all this? Do you have some visions that you have around seeing your product on a plane somewhere? Where does the top of the mountain, what's it look like to you?

Alice: I would feel really proud to see a couple of, or let's say we went to London for a trip and we saw Audrey's bags. Around that for me would feel, or I was on the tube and someone and I had an Audrey's bag, and someone would ask me about Audrey's, as in would recognize us, that for me would feel good.

Arthur: Okay. Final one, one thing that's hot right now, and one thing that's not hot right now,

Alice: what's hot right now I think is milk chocolate out is gone. Dark has gone out. That's how, that's what we are seeing.

Will: Traitors is absolutely smashed it on the TV and it's all over the newspaper and clearly they're absolutely having a great time.

Arthur: Listen, it's been such a [00:37:00] pleasure and a privilege to have you both on. Thank you so much. During your busiest week of the year. I cannot suggest for the listeners enough to go check out Audrey's website.

It will be shared. You will be seeing this business grow and you've just given a kindly given an insight today for people on what it's really like in the inside. The diversity of challenges, the complexity, the demands, but the excitement and. You don't have to look far to see how exciting it is. Your packaging is phenomenal.

And I can't wait to eat more of your chocolate, so thank you so much.