A history of Beech’s Fine Chocolates

Beech’s Fine Chocolates are a specialist artisan chocolatier, based in the Lancashire city of Preston. Recognised as a historic market town with evidence of a nearby Roman camp at Walton Le Dale, Preston achieved city status in 2002, becoming the United Kingdom’s 50^th city. The area has a long tradition of entrepreneurship and manufacturing, largely in the textiles industry. During the industrial revolution, Preston was a boomtown and is notorious for being the birthplace of Sir Richard Arkwright, inventor of the infamous Spinning Jenny which revolutionised textile manufacture.

This manufacturing heritage is abundant in the local economy today and Beech’s are proud to be a key part of it. We have been making chocolates using traditional methods on the same site since 1920 and have maintained the same hand-finished approach, culminating in the wide range of luxury chocolate favourites we sell today.

Still 100% family owned, the brand has grown in notoriety over the past century and we now export our luxury chocolates to many countries around the world. Much of the success of the Beech’s brand is due to our continuation of traditional chocolate making methods. As a long serving local employer, many Prestonians regard Beech’s Fine Chocolates as a cornerstone of the city’s manufacturing heritage, and several local families have been working with us for generations. In fact, our longest serving 20 members of the current team have a combined experience of over 600 years with us! This emphasis on using traditional methods and investing in our employees, has resulted in the Beech’s Fine Chocolates name becoming synonymous with the very highest quality, luxury chocolates.

As an award winning chocolatier, we appreciate the need to continually develop new products, meeting the changing tastes of our customers. Over the last 3 years we have employ our generations of experience to create new products, including our now flagship luxury truffles range. Presented in beautiful packaging, our products are stocked in many retail outlets that share ethical beliefs about sustainability and the finest quality, including Booths, Waitrose, Fortnum and Mason, and Lakeland.

We believe that our insistence to only use the finest natural ingredients is the foundation for Beech’s success, and we intend to continue this philosophy with each new product our dedicated chocolatiers create. This approach has held us in good stead for nearly 103 years, which is why it will be the focus of Beech’s Fine Chocolates for the next century too!