Chocolate administration hits London’s largest luxury chocolatier as Marasu's Petit Fours enters administration
Marasu's Petit Fours, a long-standing maker of premium chocolates in London, has entered administration after nearly four decades in business. Administrators were appointed in early February, and the firm announced the move later in the month as it prepares to restructure and scale back its retail presence.
What happened and immediate steps
Notices show administrators were brought in on February 6, 2026 (ET), with the company making a public statement on February 17, 2026 (ET). The business, founded in the mid-1980s by patissiers Rolf Kern and Gabi Kohler, operates a sizeable production site in Park Royal that has turned out more than 300 tonnes of chocolate a year from a roughly 25, 000 sq ft facility.
The entry into administration follows a broader reorganisation of the group that owns the chocolatier, which recently closed a central flagship shop as part of pre-arranged sale activity. A prepack arrangement was completed that moved parts of the group to a different chocolate-maker ownership, while the Marasu brand itself will shift toward an online-only model as the business seeks to preserve production and key customer relationships.
Market pressures and operational challenges
Longer-term market dynamics played a central role in the company’s decline. Cocoa harvests in major producing countries were hit by disease and adverse weather in recent seasons, pushing global cocoa prices to record highs in 2024 and placing sustained pressure on chocolatier margins. Prices have eased since those peaks as demand softened, but the linkage between volatile commodity costs and tight margins remains acute for premium confectioners.
At the same time, the producer’s strategy to broaden offerings with higher-end cocoa varieties appears to have raised input costs and exposed the business to competition from lower-cost suppliers. These competing pressures—higher-cost raw materials coupled with an intensely competitive retail market for premium chocolate—left the firm vulnerable despite its scale of production and longstanding reputation.
Implications for customers, staff and the supply chain
Marasu's supplied a range of upscale food halls and national retailers, as well as some high-volume chains, making it an important supplier in both luxury and mainstream channels. The administration raises immediate questions for wholesale customers that rely on steady shipments, and for employees at the Park Royal site whose roles may be affected by restructuring.
The prepack sale and the pivot to online-only sales aim to preserve core manufacturing capability and retain as many client relationships as possible, but the future will depend on whether new ownership can stabilise input costs and restore margin. For consumers, the shift away from physical retail footprints will reduce visibility of the brand on the high street even as production continues at scale.
Industry observers note that the situation illustrates a broader squeeze across premium confectionery, where producers confront commodity volatility, changing consumer demand, and the economics of supplying both luxury retailers and larger chains. How quickly the business can be reshaped under administration will determine whether the brand survives as an industrial supplier, a direct-to-consumer label, or both.
