Harrogate Chocolate Factory will be hosting an informal business networking event on Monday.

Coffee and cake will be included, with a tour of the chocolate factory.

The event will run from 9:30am on Monday 25 April and will all be completely free of charge for anyone wanting to attend.

Attendees are free to bring a guest, and are asked to reserve a place by emailing Angela at the factory at angela@hs4lc.org.uk.

Harrogate Chocolate Factory is a social enterprise café launched in 2019. The company sells dark chocolate made from Peruvian cacao beans, and aims to support young adults with learning disabilities and autism to gain vital skills to enter employment.

Elexshow comes to Harrogate

The UK’s largest trade event for electricians, the Elexshow, is coming to Harrogate.

Businesses such as Alltrade, Aico, CK Tools, and Metrel will be at the show, which will be hosted in Great Yorkshire Showground this year.

Exhibitions of equipment, tools, new apps and systems will be available to view for tradespeople in and around the region.

The event spans over the course of two days, from Thursday 28-29 April.

Tickets are available to book online for free, and can be found on the Elexshow website.

Inhealthcare UK raises money for Frank’s Fund 

Inhealthcare UK has raised more than £200 to support a local charity.

The raffle gifted the winner a Bettys Yorkshire Delights hamper.

The company, which provides digital health and remote patient monitoring, donated the money to Frank’s Fund.

Frank’s Fund was set up by the family of a young boy who died from a rare form of bone cancer

Frank’s Fund is a local Harrogate based charity. It was set up in memory of Frank Ashton, a Harrogate schoolboy who died from Ewing’s Sarcoma. The charity aims to raise awareness and funds for this rare form of bone cancer. You can read more about it on a Stray Ferret Charity Corner here.

To date, the charity has raised £299,170.77.

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Chocolate may be associated with Easter for many people, but for one Harrogate social enterprise it’s a year-round obsession. 

Harrogate Chocolate Factory has been making its own chocolate “from bean to bar” for the last three years. 

With new equipment being brought in, it will significantly increase its manufacturing capacity over the coming weeks. More bars will soon be available from its website and from local stockists including Crimple and Artizan.

CEO Hadyn Moorby-Davies said the way the project has developed has been rewarding: 

“You have got to have some optimism to start projects like this, but it’s really satisfying seeing it now.” 

After a delay thanks to covid, last summer Harrogate Chocolate Factory Cafe opened next to the Odeon cinema on East Parade. The last year has proven to be a successful one and now Harrogate Skills 4 Living Centre (HS4LC), the organisation behind the project, is looking to build on its growth by engaging with the business community.

The chocolate factory and café are staffed by people with learning difficulties. They were set up to provide a stepping stone to employment, providing real-world experience in a familiar and supported environment. 

From there, students go on to placements with local companies, ranging from small businesses to large corporations. Among the list of places to have taken students so far are Labcorp, Rudding Park, the Army Foundation College and Ilk Homes at Flaxby. 

Students and staff at Harrogate Chocolate Factory Cafe

Angie Russell, who runs several local businesses including Skye Blue Cleaners and Harrogate changeovers, has also taken on two students from HS4L. She said: 

“We advertised for somebody to work in the laundry. Paul [from HS4L] said he had someone who might be interested.  

“My initial reaction was ‘no, we can’t’. My perception was there would be to many problems with stairs and so on. He said, ‘can we come and have a chat?’.” 

With some of her fears allayed, Angie took on a student for a couple of hours a week doing administrative tasks such as sending out letters. Now, she is working in the laundry, and Angie has taken on another student to join her housekeeping team. 

The result has been a complete turnaround in Angie’s attitude to the programme, so much so that she’s now working with HS4LC to increase its engagement with the business community and provide more opportunities for students – and for businesses themselves. 

“Having someone who comes in who doesn’t care if you have a Gucci handbag or who said what about who – it changes the atmosphere. 

“The employers we work with have a genuine interest in the students. People get to realise there are far more benefits to employing that diverse workforce: it can just brighten up a room.” 

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The training the students are receiving at the Harrogate Chocolate Factory and Café could be perfect for Harrogate hospitality businesses, which have reported significant problems recruiting since the covid pandemic began. 

While many business owners are nervous about the practicalities of taking on an employee with learning difficulties, often, they are more risk-averse than is necessary.  

Students are given a job coach who comes to work with them to begin with. That direct support remains in place for as long as is needed, whether it is a few months or throughout their employment.  

However, in many cases, once they get to know the role, the students are confident to be left alone with their coach checking on them and their employer from time to time. 

The chocolate factory itself has proven that students can adapt to, or even enjoy, some of the most mundane tasks. 

Hadyn added: 

“It’s really that routine with steps that is great for people with autism. We’ve got quite a few students who really love that routine.  

“Often, the boring jobs that nobody wants to do, they like it because they can focus on it. That was quite satisfying to realise that initial idea worked.” 

Now, as part of their plans for expansion, staff at HS4LC have launched Engage 22. The project is designed to put the interests and aspirations of students at the heart of the services on offer, from the training they receive to the social activities they can attend. 

The charity’s home on North Park Road has been offering classes for many years, but the calendar of events is still expanding. Gym memberships, swimming sessions and cinema trips are all adding to the variety of art, craft, music, dance and drama lessons. 

Angie said: 

“They really aspire to working. They can see their friends and peers doing similar stuff and living independently.” 

Hadyn added: 

“Our purpose is to overcome inequality and help people do what they want to with their lives.” 

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:

“There are a few reasons why you can feel good if you buy this chocolate. It supports charity, it’s sustainable and it doesn’t have any nasty allergens.

“Coronavirus has made it a tough year for everyone. We are still here to help young adults with learning difficulties.

“Our charity is there to be like the final step to help our clients get into the world of work. It gives them another choice.”

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Hadyn Moorby-Davies, chief executive of HS4LC, said:

“It will be fantastic to see the cafe when it opens, I am really chuffed with how it has been working so far.

“The students are also really excited about it. The Harrogate Chocolate Factory has been in planning for a couple of years.

“We know that York has a strong connection to chocolate but why can’t Harrogate have that as well? Maybe this could be the start.”