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.
View 3 ImagesBlocks of chocolate made by the now-defunct UK chocolatier(Image: Supplied)
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.
View 3 ImagesA chocolate ‘scotch egg’ made by the sweetmaker(Image: Supplied)
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.
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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.