COCOA HERNANDO

Luxury travel-inspired chocolate. Founded, designed, built and run end to end.

Brand identity · Packaging design · Product development · Shopify design and build · Subscriptions · Email and social · Wholesale · Fulfilment

Overview

Cocoa Hernando was my own chocolate brand, built around one idea: every bar is a place. I created the concept, developed the recipes with manufacturers, designed the packaging, and designed and built the Shopify store that sold it. Mentored by a former Dragon, the brand went on to be stocked by Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, along with dozens of independent retailers across the UK. In addition, I had such fun running collaborations (such as a Chocolate House Tour of London), appearing at many speaking events to talk about my brand and working with some amazing talent such as Asma Khan, founder of the Darjeeling Express.

The concept

Each bar pairs a destination with a flavour that belongs there. The India bar, for example, combined milk chocolate with masala chai, wrapped in packaging illustrated with an iconic Indian landscape – the Charminar in Hyderabad. The range was designed to work as gifting, as a collection, and as a story that carried through the packaging, the website and the market stall.

What I did

Brand and product development. Developed the travel-inspired concept and the place-to-flavour pairings, then worked with manufacturers to turn each one into a finished recipe.

Packaging design. Designed the packaging range, giving every bar its own destination while keeping the collection visually consistent on a shelf.

Labelling and shelf life. Reviewed allergen and ingredient labelling with the manufacturer, and managed best-before dates across stock so wholesale deliveries met department stores’ minimum shelf-life requirements.

Shopify design and build. Designed and built the store, on a custom theme based on Dawn, and ran it day to day: offers, promotions and customer service.

Subscriptions. Set up and ran a monthly chocolate subscription using Recharge, reaching 300 subscribers at peak.

Retail and markets. Sold at London markets including Southbank using Shopify POS, drawing from the same inventory as the online store so stock stayed accurate across every channel.

Wholesale and pricing. Pitched and managed wholesale accounts including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols. Negotiated margins with buyers while keeping RRP consistent across online, market and retail, protecting the brand’s positioning wherever it was sold.

Email, social and fulfilment. Ran a regular newsletter to 1000+ subscribers and the brand’s social channels, and packed and shipped every online and wholesale order.

Results

• Stocked in Selfridges and Harvey Nichols
• Multiple stockists across the UK
• 300 subscription customers at peak via Recharge
• One Shopify setup running DTC, subscriptions, wholesale and in-person sales from a single inventory

Why this matters for your brand

I’ve run every part of the operation a food brand’s Shopify store has to support: DTC, subscriptions, wholesale, markets and fulfilment, all from one inventory. When I build your store, I’m building it as someone who has had to live with one.

The store is now closed sadly, but you can still find out more at https://www.instagram.com/cocoahernando/ and https://x.com/cocoahernando.