Horsham couple get set to open their very own Willy Wonka chocolate factory

Jamie Miller and girlfriend Catherine Dodd launched a vegan confectionery business in 2021 after making their own special brand of vegan sweets.

And now the business has come on in leaps and bounds with the hand-made and hand-wrapped Quality-Street style vegan sweets – called Catherine’s Originals – flying off the shelves.

Now, says Jamie, following a Government grant and personal investments: “We are pushing to raise the last little bit of capital we need to set up and run our very own Willy Wonka chocolate factory.”

He added: “We are doing this via a ‘Kickstarter’ campaign, rewarding people who pledge with goodies such as unlimited chocolates for a year, a day making chocolate, and even to become taste-testing team members for our new products.”

So far Jamie and Catherine have been manufacturing their chocolates in Henfield but are now hoping to secure manufacturing premises elsewhere in West Sussex to help meet public demand for their sweets. Their first batch of 30,000 Catherine’s Originals sold out soon after launch.

"Last Christmas we produced 'stocking-filler bags' which were filled with 11 chocolates, containing at least one of each flavour. We sold exclusively online, and completely sold out of 800 bags within two weeks, with the final 160 bags selling in one and a half hours in a mad rush,” said Jamie.

"We were blown away and we couldn't write the addresses on the parcels fast enough.

“It has always been our intention to move into our own factory space, but with such a high demand we are bringing to life our factory sooner than expected, hence our need to raise more capital upfront. We are roughly 80 per cent of the way there.”

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He said they used the term ‘Willy Wonka’ chocolate factory “to express to the public our intentions of creating a truly enticing and interactive experience that is more than just chocolate.

"This will obviously develop over the next few years, so for now we are just working on making chocolates and getting them out to the public to try, and therefore build our brand. Our chocolates really do taste good.”

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