Turns out business had turned bittersweet for the British chocolatier, with company bookeeping indicating back in Feburary the sweetmaker was running on fumes
A UK-based chocolate firm has gone under, with liquidators assigned to manage the tanking business after navigating increasingly troubled waters since 2023.
Despite winning a number of awards – including LuxeLife Magazine’s Best Artisan Chocolate Gift award – Kent-based Kakawa Artisan Chocolate & Co confirmed it was going into voluntary liquidation.
The company had previously shared accounts in February of this year that indicated the company was already technically insolvent, on a balance sheet basis.
Financial records for the award-winning sweetmaker chronicle a slow demise towards the eventual liquidation, which was confirmed last week.
At a General Meeting of Kakawa Artisan Chocolate & Co, held in Norwich, it was agreed that “the Company be wound up voluntarily”, as per an announcement in the UK Gazette on June 3.
Liquidators have now been appointed for “the purpose of such winding up”, the Gazette reports, thus ending years of struggle for a business that seemed to be in a sweet spot on the surface.
February 2026 balance sheets show it had liabilities greater than its total assets – or, to put it simply – the business had been surviving on fumes, credit, or money it owed to others in the wake of a gamble back in 2023 which, it would seem, did not pay off.
In 2022, the UK-based chocolate firm seemed to have a decent amount of short-term cash and stock, as per balance sheets submitted to Companies House. That cash and stock was valued at about £18,873, so in 2023, Kakawa bought more assets – doubling its fixed asset inventory from £9,705 to £20,298).
As per balance sheets from the time, it appears the chocolate maker spent their cash and took on some extra short-term debt to buy this equipment.
The financial health of the business declined between 2023 and 2024, with the big gamble to expand its stock failing to secure additional revenue.
In 2024, their short-term assets didn’t grow at all. In fact, their assets stagnated at approximatley £6,400, meaning Kakawa didn’t generate any new streams of revenue while their debts piled up and up – eventually reaching more than £70,000.
Overall, the chocolate maker’s financial health went from sweet to bittersweet year-on-year, with its debt growing and its net worth sinking further into the negative before it finally gave up the ghost in June of 2026.