I often smile when recalling a comment I overheard whilst walking along Rye High Street a few years ago: ” This business will fail, mark my words, it will never make it there, it’s at the wrong end of the High Street”, was the profound prediction.
The comment referred to a new business opening in Rye. It was in 2013 when Jens Knoops decided to share his passion for chocolate by opening his first chocolate drinks store on Tower Street in Rye.
Ten years later, the Knoops brand has sky rocketed, expanding into 22 locations in the United Kingdom and also has distribution partnerships with premium retailers Harrods, Selfridges and Whole Foods as well as collecting a number of prestigious awards en route. This is just the beginning of the next phase of expansion as covered previously in Rye News (see Knoops expanding worldwide)
Last Saturday, November 2 Knoops launched its international debut by opening in the City Centre Mirdif shopping mall in Dubai. This latest opening marks the testing phase of the brand into the UAE and, if successful, Knoops will partner with new franchisees to progress openings across the wider Middle East.
Knoops CEO William Gordon-Harris said: “Embedding Knoops across the whole Middle East and introducing the region to the rituals of drinking chocolate has been carefully planned, beginning with the first UAE store. The City Centre Mirdif is the perfect place to launch in this important market.”
Perhaps the prophet of doom, the person who made the derisory comment all those years ago, wished they had been brave enough to buy shares in this new venture but instead I suspect they will have to consign themselves to eating a large slice of humble pie, washed down perhaps with a lovely cup of drinking chocolate?
Image Credits: Knoops .
My Australian brother-in-law Peter is a chocolate milkshake aficionado, and in extensive foreign travel claimed that Australia was the only country where you could get a proper chocolate milkshake. That is until he discovered Knoops, when he and my sister began visiting me annually after I moved to Rye in 2013. He recommends a visit to Knoops to all the mutual friends who plan to visiit me on their European travel routes. My nephew Mark, who lives and works in the Netherlands, is also a fan on his trips to Rye.