WHEN a mother and daughter set up a specialist chocolate shop they were not expecting everything to be sweet on the path to success.

Katherine Speakman and Kelly Pope expected to work hard, especially since they had started their business in the teeth of the worst recession for 60 years.

But their experience of setting up The Chocolate Bar in Bolton turned sour when their major supplier went out of business just weeks before the Christmas rush.

However the women refused to see their dream melt away and pulled out all the stops to rescue the situation.

Undeterred by the supplier’s closure, which could have ruined them, virtually overnight they learned how to make their own chocolates, managing to create thousands of truffles which they sold at Christmas.

Mrs Speakman roped in her husband John and after buying books and finding a source of high quality ingredients they set about making truffles in their kitchen at home.

Now they regularly make a range of 18 home-made chocolates and are working on another 12 to introduce for the Christmas market.

It has led them to create their own blend of chocolates, such as Marmite flavoured truffles, strawberry and pink pepper truffles, chilli and lime truffles, to name but a few.

Mrs Speakman said: “We were ringing the supplier all the time just before Christmas but no one was answering the phone. We later found out that they had gone out of business.

“We panicked at first because we had ordered what we wanted for Christmas but the orders never turned up.

“But we got stuck in and started making our own chocolates. It’s been hard work, especially during the Christmas rush when we had people queueing up outside the shop to buy chocolate.

“We have been working long days and then we make our own chocolates on Sunday at home and now we also make and sell chocolate pizzas, marshmallow kebabs, chocolate lollies and dipped fruit.

“We also supply chocolates as wedding favours and next year we have already got 13 wedding bookings.

“We are doing really well at Christmas, Easter and anniversaries plus weddings but it has been quiet during the summer because of the bad weather, so we have tables where we serve coffee and cakes.”

Mrs Speakman and her husband are experimenting with different flavoured truffles such as chocolate and bacon and curry and chocolate but so far have failed to find the right balance of flavours.

Many customers suggest unusual flavours to them as well.

And more exotic flavours of truffles, including an absinthe truffle, a sea salt truffle and a gingerbread truffle, will be on sale at Christmas.

Now they are converting the upstairs rooms above The Chocolate Bar and are installing several thousands of pounds worth of chocolate making machinery to streamline the manufacturing process.

And they plan to start making their own chocolate bars which they currently buy-in.Chocs away