Meet West Sussex’s answer to Willy Wonka – the impressive young businesswoman who’s building a chocolate empire

Catherine Dodd is the creator of Catherine’s Originals, a plant-based chocolate company that makes the world’s first vegan chocolate selection box. It was an instant success and has led to her and business partner and boyfriend Jamie Miller setting up a production facility at Tokar Industrial Park, in Yapton Lane, Walberton.

This year the company launched its second product, Wonky Buttons, which were also a big hit – beating their annual sales forecast in just two weeks.

HAVE YOU READ? Sussex beaches named among top 10 in the country - with one taking first place

And if it sounds impressive that at the age of just 22 Catherine has set up a successful business, built a chocolate factory, employs seven people and sells her products across the UK through a network of 60 independent stores and the firm’s website, that’s because it is.

Catherine invited me to tour her factory and shared the inspirational story of how she set up Catherine’s Originals when she was just 18. She said: “I’d been due to go to BHASVIC sixth-form college in Brighton to do my A-levels, and the night before I was supposed to enrol I said to my mum ‘I don’t want to go’. I’d found school very stressful, to the point it had made me ill, and I wasn’t passionate about any of the subjects I was going to be taking. My parents have always been extremely supportive, and my mum said ‘if you don’t want to go, don’t go’.

“It lead to me thinking about what I really wanted to do. At Christmastime in 2020, all my family were enjoying chocolate selection boxes, but as I was vegan I couldn’t have any. There are vegan chocolates on the market, but there wasn’t a true selection box. I started looking at chocolate boxes – the brightly coloured wrappers, the different sizes and shapes, the different flavours and what went into them, and I decided I wanted to fill the gap in the market.”

In April 2021, Catherine’s Originals was born, initially out of her parents’ kitchen in Offham, near Lewes.

She told me she started by drawing up what she envisioned should be in her selection. She said she wanted it to be more than just chocolates in a box and created nine different types, each with a different identity and playful name. An old school friend with branding experience helped to bring the ideas to life by creating the colourful imagery the products use today.

After huge success hand-making, wrapping and packing a vast batch of chocolates to sell at Brighton Christmas market that year – selling out all 30,000 chocolates in just three days – the next year Catherine and Jamie decided to scale up the business and rented a kitchen in Henfield.

They found a product expert to help them hone the recipes and also sourced investment, from Government grants and two outside investors.

They were also given £25,000 by Deliveroo, where Catherine and Jamie, who is from Horsham, both did shifts in the early days to earn extra money. They won Deliveroo’s Big Pitch competition, which helps its staff to start businesses.

The money they sourced allowed them to start buying machinery and in mid-2023 they found their current base in Walberton and built their factory.

They sold a vast amount of their selection boxes last Christmas and also spent three weeks at Winchester Christmas Market.

And now with two products on the market, Catherine and the team, which also includes her brother Will Dodd, are making plans to scale-up production to meet constantly increasing demand with investment in new machinery.

There are also plans for a new product to be launched later this year, and plans to get into larger stores and supermarkets thanks to deals signed with three wholesales companies.

Catherine, who along with Jamie has recently moved down the road from her factory, said: “I think my confidence in the business stems back from having supportive parents who always encouraged me to get on with my dreams. They always told me I can do anything in this world. I wasn’t forced to do anything. I love the constant changes in business, it keeps you on your toes and it keeps your brain active. I’m always fully driving forward. I never want the business to be in a place where it’s stagnant. I always want something to be going on, even if it’s stressful because it’ll keep me feeling alert. Even if it’s the wrong decision, I’ll know for next time what to do and what would work out. I have fully learned on the job and I’m still learning as I go.”

All Catherine’s Originals products are fairly traded, gluten free, use sustainable palm oil, use recycled packaging and are vegan. Catherine said it was the company’s ‘five USPs’, as well as coming up with new products which are ‘original takes on the original classics’, which sets apart Catherine’s Originals. She added: “That’s why I picked the name. There are so many things missing in the plant-based market, especially things that taste good. A huge thing for me is I don’t want to compromise on taste. I know I would say our products would taste good, but I hope our customers would agree they do.

“I don’t want to be preaching the vegan side of the business to people, but if we can provide an option that is better, and it tastes delicious and is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than other chocolates on the market – all the things the world needs – then that’s great!”

​