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Inside the Favorich Chocolate Factory
Behind the Scenes at Favorich: Sustainable Chocolate Made in Suffolk
On a mild Wednesday in early March, we were invited to Sudbury to take a tour of the Favorich factory and learn about their history and upcoming product launches. Keep reading to find out why we’re excited for the future of this British chocolate brand…
by Lyndsey Hall
30 March 2026
Everybody’s Talking About Favorich
Arriving at the Favorich facility in Suffolk, we instantly noticed the interesting shape of the building, and it wasn’t long before we heard the story behind it. Favorich took the factory over from Philips Avent, the baby bottle manufacturer, back in 2023. The building had originally been designed to mimic the shape of a baby bottle, and Favorich decided to keep the bare bones of the original factory, including its unique shape, and completely renovate the inside for their brand-new chocolate factory.
The Sudbury facility has the additional benefit of being surrounded by fields of sugar beet, which provide the sugar that makes Favorich’s chocolate. We also learned that the stream behind the site is home to a type of endangered dragonfly, topping off the idyllic location!
A Peek Behind the Chocolate Curtain
After being handed our visitor lanyards and guided to a bright, modern meeting room, we were introduced to our Account Manager, Kirsten, who presented the history of GCB Cocoa and Favorich to us. Favorich is a brand with one foot firmly rooted in tradition, and the other is stepping into the next chapter of chocolate.
Creating the new facility from scratch gave Favorich the opportunity to build in future-proofing from the beginning. The factory currently produces 14-18,000MT of dark and milk chocolate, in easymelt couverture, and bake stable chip and chunk form, with plans to add white chocolate and other products soon, including cocoa liquor and cocoa butter. The fully-segregated non-dairy production lines also mean their dark chocolates are certified Dairy-Free, and are now also Vegan Society registered.
We learned about the various food safety certifications GCB Cocoa and Favorich hold, allowing them to produce chocolate products to meet the exacting standards of some of the biggest brands in the UK.
Sustainability is at the heart of everything GCB Cocoa does, from improving farmer livelihoods to protecting the environment and increasing transparency across the supply chain.
Favorich is one of the only chocolate brands that is already compliant with the upcoming European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), thanks to this factory in Suffolk and a brand new cocoa production facility in Cote d’Ivoire. You can read all about the new legislation in A Guide to the European Deforestation Regulation.
Riding in the Glass Elevator
The first thing that hits you when you step into the Favorich factory is the intoxicating smell of molten chocolate. The second is the incredible care with which the whole facility has been planned and executed. From the spotlessly clean surfaces and clever engineering to the air pressure that forces air out of the non-dairy section into the dairy section, preventing these areas from becoming contaminated with any milk powder that may be in the air.
There may be no glass elevator or river of chocolate, but walking around the Favorich factory is the closest you can get to feeling like Willy Wonka. With labs and NPD kitchens around every corner, it’s clear that Favorich has one eye on the future of the chocolate industry.
What kind of chocolate factory tour would it be without a little taste testing? We were spoiled with a huge range of applications including bonbons and bars, solid chocolate figures, dipped biscuits, chocolate chip muffins and brownies. We got to sample the entire Keylink Favorich range, which includes 70% and 53% dark chocolates as well as a 34% milk chocolate (and a 30% coming soon!), as well as dark and milk chips and chunks, and three varieties of cocoa powder.
The NPD room is like a mini factory within a factory, and the new test kitchen means the Favorich team can create a wide range of products to trial before deciding on their next launch. We were lucky enough to try a newly developed product and everyone agreed it was absolutely delicious! Hopefully, we’ll be able to tell you more about this in due course…
All too soon, it was time to thank the Favorich team and set off back to Yorkshire with a better understanding of the precision engineering it takes to run a chocolate factory smoothly (and a bag of chocolate treats for the drive, of course).
At Keylink, we’re delighted to have partnered with Favorich as their preferred distribution partner, and we can’t wait to see where this team of cocoa enthusiasts will take chocolate next. Join us on the journey!
Lyndsey is a marketing executive, writer and lover of books and chocolate from Sheffield.
Her favourite bake is a gooey chocolate brownie.
