A popular Ramsbottom café has announced it is opening a new branch in an ‘up and coming’ town.

The Chocolate Café, on Bolton Street, will open its second shop in Rawtenstall replacing the former chocolate shop on Bank Street.

The new store, which opens on Monday, hopes to entice new customers in Rossendale with a free chocolate tasting event.

Social media and Marketing officer, Kate Lockett says the café, which opened in 2008, has always wanted a second location, and Rawtenstall is the perfect place to open it.

She said: “Rawtenstall seems to be a really up and coming new town, a lot of independent businesses seem to be popping up there and you’ve got the Rawtenstall Market as well.

“It seemed like a really nice little town for us, and what with us being from Ramsbottom, it’ quite a similar town.

“We wanted to expand over there because we do get a lot of customers here that are from that area and when the shop became available, we just took it.”

Like many in the hospitality industry The Chocolate Café, which was taken over by current owner Philip Hargreaves in 2019, has had a tough few years due to the coronavirus pandemic and the rising cost of living.

Despite this, Kate says that business is still going strong and in the future, they hope to open even more branches.

She said: “We’ve seen quite a drop [in customers] especially on the café side, so we’re just doing everything that we can to generate people through the door.

“We’ve had a new menu recently, and that seems to have really helped.

“We’ve definitely been affected by the cost-of-living crisis just like everybody else but we think having the new shop in Rawtenstall will really help us get some new customers and get our name out there.”

Kate says she hopes the shop will have a unique place in the town. 

“There’s not too many brunch spots around and obviously it was a chocolate shop before and there isn’t any other chocolate shops.

“We’re hoping for a really good Christmas, we do a lot of bars, truffles, hot chocolates that are really good for gifts and hampers and things like that.

“We’re really hoping it will be successful, especially just before Christmas.”