Harrogate is to get its own chocolate factory cafe this summer staffed by people promised to be more talented than Willy Wonka.

The Harrogate Chocolate Factory cafe is due to open at the end of May in the former Big Red Bike Company building, near the Odeon cinema.

Learning disability charity Harrogate Skills 4 Living Centre (HS4LC), which is behind the initiative, has spent £100,000 renovating the building.

The charity, which was set up in 2010, helps adults with learning disabilities and autism.



Many of the people it supports have been unable to get work experience during the pandemic.

As a result, HS4LC set up its own business making chocolate in the kitchen of its offices on North Park Road, Harrogate.

Demand grew quickly and the charity sold 500 chocolate hampers before Christmas.

This encouraged it to set up a cafe as a social enterprise, selling chocolate made in the chocolate 'factory' beneath its offices.



Currently the Harrogate Chocolate Factory only sells a 70% dark chocolate bar made from Peruvian cocoa beans but a vegan milk chocolate bar is in the works.

Michael Horn, enterprise manager for the chocolate project, told the Stray Ferret:

Read more:

• Harrogate sight loss charity celebrates 100 years


• Pinewoods Conservation – more than just a pressure group