Our Story

Early days

We met as lawyers working in a London law firm and very quickly talked each other out of furthering our legal careers and got married instead.  We took a year out and travelled the length and breadth of South America, trekking through Patagonia in the south and camping out on a cocoa plantation in the northern most tip of Venezuela and into the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago.  Already fascinated with cocoa and its incredible history and botany, we discovered the town of San Carlos de Bariloche in the Argentinian lake district and found it was filled with chocolate shops. On returning home a few months later, we set about finding a way to make a business out of a food we had fallen in love with and Montezuma’s Chocolates was born.

Getting Started

In August 2000, we opened our first chocolate shop in Brighton, hand making all the bars ourselves, using the best quality ethical cocoa sourced from plantations that met our strict ‘Trading Fairly’ policy. We took inspiration from our travels and created adventurous flavour combinations such as orange and cardamom, lime and hemp seeds and the Montezuma’s Revenge truffle with the exotic blend of chilli, tequila and lime.

Given our plan to outsource manufacturing fell apart at the 11th hour due to the insolvency of our main contractor, we hastily opened our first 'micro' factory using every once of ingenuity to ensure we didn't fall at the first hurdle.

Growing

We grew our business around a clear set of values, through hard graft, and building a culture of work hard, play hard.  The Montezuma’s values remain the same today: we are entrepreneurial, we do business properly and we are fun-loving.  Having worked in a corporate world, we challenged the way businesses were run, created an authentic, open and honest environment, building important relationships with suppliers, staff and customers, many of which are still active today. 

We built the business on a shoe-string, sweating every asset until it needed upgrading, re-investing all the profits of the business and focussing on our dream of becoming “Britain’s Greatest Little Chocolate company”. 

We split our roles, with Simon focussing on the manufacturing and sourcing and the all-important efficiencies required to drive a profitable business while Helen focussed on sales, marketing and the finances. We ran the business as joint MDs and recruited locally, preferring to hire for cultural fit and then train and develop staff in-house.

Montezuma’s is a multi-channel business selling through its own retail stores, own website, Amazon and through a huge network of resellers including most of the major supermarkets.

Exiting

In 2018, we accepted an offer from private equity to take a majority stake in the business and help to drive the growth to the next level.  At the time of investment, the business was debt-free and profitable, and we held 100% of the equity.  After a six month handover period, we became non-Executive directors. 

The business however suffered under new ownership with new directors and in June 2023, Montezuma’s was bought out of a pre-pack administration by a new owner.  They approached us to come back into the business to get it back on track.

Within four months, Montezuma’s reported a profit and a new MD was appointed.  We left the business for the final time on Christmas Eve 2023, leaving it in the hands of the new owners and the new MD.

Life & Times

In the early days of Montezuma’s, we met with local charity Children on the Edge, a child rights organisation created (by the current CEO Rachel Bentley OBE and Dame Anita Roddick) to support the world’s most marginalised children, living in some of the toughest situations.  We supported some of their events by providing chocolate and as the business grew, our support for the charity increased.  Montezuma’s raised and donated in excess of £250,000 to COTE since that first meeting.  Helen has visited several projects in Uganda  and has been a trustee since 2016 helping the charity to achieve their global ambitions whilst retaining their bespoke and entrepreneurial business culture.

With three daughters we have had little time to relax however in 2012, Simon co-founded a youth cycling club, Solent Pirates Youth Cycling Club, providing cycling coaching to over a thousand youngsters on the south coast over the last twelve years.  Several of the Club’s young cyclists have gone on to represent Great Britain in various cycling disciplines, but many more have discovered a sport for life. After watching her daughter's race every weekend, Helen decided to give it a go and is now a two times Cyclocross World Champion and multiple National Champion in cyclocross and mountain biking.  Simon sits on the British Cycling Cyclocross Commission and also organises several cycling races every year.