Guilbert’s has been churning out hand-made

chocolates from its city centre workshop for 50 years. David

1. ​

   Managing director Alan White

2. ​

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Clensy pays a visit to find out more.

STEPPING inside Guilbert’s chocolate factory really is like

slipping back in time. The workshop is hidden deep along a

Bristol backstreet. It’s hard to imagine how few of the

shoppers on the nearby Corn Street know it even exists.

You notice the sound first. Or at least, the absence of it.

No grumbling machines here. Just the gentle chatter from the

workers on the shop floor.

Dressed in his confectioner’s whites, Guilbert’s MD Alan

White pats the sugar from his hands as he comes to the little

reception window.

He leads the way through into his neighbouring office. The

large hardwood desk and wooden filing shelves have probably

been here since the company moved to these premises 50 years

ago.

No sign of computers or plasma screens here – just a leather

and wood bureau and a couple of swivel chairs.

“The company started in 1910, but we’ve been here in Leonard

Lane for 50 years,” Alan explains, as he reaches into one of

the wooden pigeon holes and hands me a black and white

photograph of the factory in the late Fifties.

It shows a series of wooden benches, with ladies in hair

nets dipping fondants in melted chocolate by hand.

Alan leads the way out of his office and into the workshop.

Somehow, I find myself expecting a transformed room from the

one I’d just seen in the sepia Fifties.

But in fact, it looks remarkably similar. The ladies are

still here dipping the pieces of fondant in chocolate – though

if it’s the exact same ladies, they’re certainly ageing

well.

“We’ve never mechanised in the way that bigger chocolate

producers have,” Alan says with a shrug of his shoulders.

“We just don’t need to. We have light bulbs under the

chocolate bowls to keep it melted, and we do have an electric

food mixer these days – so we have progressed a little. But

we’re a small family workshop. We like doing everything as

traditionally as possible.”

None of your fancy organic chocolate or natural colourings

here, either – this is old-school confectionery.

“We tried the natural colouring briefly, but they just don’t

hold their tones for the same amount of time.”

They may not follow the latest foodie trends, but Guilbert’s

does boast some big names among its trade customers.

“We make chocolates for London shops such as Fortnum &

Mason, Rococo and Prestat,” Alan says.

“But a lot of our customers are gift shops in places like

the Cotswolds, the Lake District and Stratford-upon-Avon.

“So our business is up and down quite a lot – it’s seriously

dependent on the state of the tourist industry, and even on the

kind of weather we have each summer.”

Guilbert’s was started in 1910, by the original Mr Guilbert

– a Swiss chocolatier, who set up shop in Park Street.

The founder was only around for a few years before the

company was bought by an import/export business, and run by a

series of managers.

Before World War II, the company expanded, opening a second

shop in Milsom Street in Bath.

But when Bristol was bombed in the Blitz of 1940, the Park

Street shop was put out of action.

Undaunted, Guilbert’s carried on and opened a new shop at

The Promenade in Gloucester Road.

After the war, the Park Street shop was rebuilt and the

business continued at all three premises until the Fifties.

“Things changed in the mid-Fifties  when they decided

to close the shops, move away from retail altogether, and

concentrate on trade,” Alan says.

The business moved in 1958 to its present address, 6 Leonard

Lane, a property then owned by local businessmen the Stride

brothers – who stayed on for a time as sleeping partners in the

firm.

“When I came in 1980, the place was owned by Frank Haycock,

who had run the company with his wife Betty since the Fifties,”

Alan says. “Then when Frank came to retire in 1999, my wife and

I bought the business.”

It feels very much like a family affair, with Alan’s wife

Wendy and their daughters Samantha and Isabelle also working

there, making the Whites more than 50 per cent of the company’s

entire workforce of seven.

“There is a family feel to the place, but I think that’s

nice,” Alan says.

“We’re small, but we tick over OK. We’re carrying on a Bristol

firm that’s been going for almost a century, and that’s

something of which we should be proud.”