The chocolatier made £9.1m in the 28 weeks running up to 9th January, up 24.6% on the same period last year. Although overall sales were slightly down (by 0.7% to £127.4m), demand for its branded chocolates grew by 5.5%.

Thorntons have said that it would continue its strategy of relying less on Christmas sales. Its chocolates are available many supermarkets and retailers as well as in its 378 stores.