Lavolio

Overview of the business

Founded by ex-City business-woman Lavinia Davolio, Lavolio is a boutique artisan confectioner that uses traditional Italian techniques to make and sell luxury sweets. There are 30 natural and original flavours created, with nuts, real fruit, chocolate and spices used.

Lavolio sells its products online, via Amazon Marketplace and its own website and also stocks independent UK delis and venues such as the famous Bluebird restaurant in Chelsea and Fortnum & Mason, London.

How do you capitalise on seasonal occasions?

As a small artisan business, with products that are particularly suited as gifts, seasonal occasions are hugely important for us as opportunities to engage with new and existing customers. In our experience, customers who are buying for a gift are looking to try something special and original and they are particularly keen to know the authentic story behind a product. That's why we are able to engage with our customers by showing them the artisan process to make our sweets which are tirelessly and intricately crafted over a period of five days.

Similarly, it's important not to underestimate the significance of first impressions in a product, especially when it is being offered as a seasonal gift. With this in mind, we are presenting our luxury confectionery in our beautiful and recognisable packaging, to make sure that these are the ideal gift for special occasions, with our designer metal boxes.

In today's retail environment, it's not enough to simply have a great tasting product with beautiful branding; it's vital to ensure your products are available in the right places and are visible to the best customer demographics. For Lavolio, we have found that in addition to having our own website, Amazon Marketplace is a great way to reach a huge range of additional customers. These online channels are complemented by our selected stockists across the UK, including independent delis and venues such as Partridges in Chelsea and Fortnum and Mason, in London.

In terms of publicising ourselves, rather than devoting large amounts of capital to expensive advertising campaigns, we focus on using our own website and our social media channels (primarily Instagram and Facebook). It's also hugely important not to forget the value of ‘word of mouth', with referrals by friends and family, and to monitor customer satisfaction by looking at the percentage of recurring clients. On the back of these strategies, Lavolio's revenue has grown by more than 60% in the year to date versus 2016.

What proportion of annual revenues is formed by the various seasonal occasions throughout the year?

Christmas is unsurprisingly our busiest time of year, with 44% of yearly revenues in 2016 experienced around the end of the year. However, with the efforts described previously, we are seeing and forecasting the following peaks in revenue throughout 2017:

  • Valentine's Day - 9%
  • Mother's Day - 7%
  • Father's Day - 3%
  • Easter - 12%

This means that the majority of revenue is taken by Lavolio during these seasonal times, with the remaining 23% taken ad hoc throughout the rest of the year, when we can take the time to develop our products and business to ensure we are constantly evolving and improving, and listening to our customer's feedback.

Where did the experience come from to start a business so far away from being a city business woman?

At a particular time in 2013 due to the financial crisis, I found myself at a crossroad. I decided to start a business in the confectionery category without any previous experience in the food industry; I decided to follow my passion.

During my investment banking days I had been working under huge amounts of pressure, where the super-fast paced environment taught me to be resilient and to learn new skills quickly, as it's a very competitive environment. Every single lesson learned in my banking career is helpful now as an entrepreneur, but I feel that I have a lot more to learn in all of these aspects, now more than ever! Of course to be credible as an entrepreneur you need to be competent, diligent and meticulous. These are all areas where my previous career has helped in setting the extremely high standards for myself and for my company. The learning opportunities of an entrepreneurial journey are unrivalled and in all honesty are the bit that I enjoy the most, particularly in the exchange I constantly have with more experienced industry professionals. I love every opportunity to meet with my mentors and with some incredibly inspirational people, but I have a lot to learn also from our suppliers and even more to learn from our customers.

The London Chocolate Company

Overview of the business

The London Chocolate Company launched at the end of 2012, owned by Jay Rawal and his sister, who were inspired by the ‘London brand' surrounding Olympic Games in London and the Royal Wedding that year.Highly-skilled chocolatiers work on new product development, which has most recently involved the finalising of plans for a red wine truffle, dark beer truffle and bourbon whiskey truffle.

How do you capitalise on seasonal occasions?

At the London Chocolate Company, we focus on constantly working to create new seasonal products to maximise sales at peak periods throughout the year. For example, one of our most recently developed ranges are Prosecco and Gin & Tonic Easter Eggs which will be coming out at Easter. My sister has a background in confectionery/chocolate and is an excellent baker, so she helps with product development, while my background is in the business side. Chocolates are a very popular gift choice throughout the year, making our product development strategy hugely important for annual sales.

What proportion of annual revenues is formed by the various seasonal occasions throughout the year?

Over the most recent seasonal occasion, Valentine's Day, our chocolates were unsurprisingly very popular, with an exclusive range of Valentine's truffles introduced. Sales figures for 1st February to 14th February show an approximate 80% spike in daily sales based on daily averages and a total of £6,500 worth of sales were made in the thirty days to that date. Selling on Amazon Marketplace helped to boost our Valentine's figures by 1500% on the same period last year.

The London Chocolate Company sells its products on Amazon Marketplace as well as its own website, and the products sit comfortably within the top 100 grocery sellers in Amazon sales rankings