A SMALL chocolate business from Somerset claims M&S has ripped off its bestselling biscuit design with the supermarket’s newest viral hit.
M&S triggered a storm of demand when it released its £13 Outrageously Chocolatey Custard Cream Biscuity Egg at the start of this year.
It’s been flying off the shelves with influencers rushing to review the tasty treat.
But Flo Broughton, founder of Somerset-based Choc on Choc, claims the supermarket has copied the £15 Giant Custard Cream chocolate which it has been selling since 2018.
Since Broughton first came up with a range of oversized biscuits made out of chocolate eight years ago, her company has become known for its giant bourbons, jammy dodgers and custard creams.
But when M&S launched its lookalike treat, Choc on Choc fans unleashed an outburst of outrage on social media, claiming it was a rip-off.
Hundreds of customers have tagged and liked posts flagging the similarity between M&S’s £13 biscuit-shaped chocolate treat and Choc on Choc’s, messaging the supermarket on Instagram.
One said: “Oh dear M&S, not your finest hour,” said one.
Another referenced M&S’s legal case against rival supermarket Aldi for copyright infringement of its Colin the Caterpillar cake, saying: “So M&S cry about a caterpillar then do this to a small business?”
Broughton, who started the artisan chocolate business with her father, Kerr Dunlop, around the family kitchen table in 2003, said she was shocked to see M&S’s product on sale – especially as it’s the second time she has accused the supermarket giant of design theft.
In 2022, the entrepreneur spotted a striking similarity between M&S’s box of £3 chocolate matchsticks and her own £8 Perfect Match Chocolate Gift Box.
When she wrote about this on Instagram, a social media storm led to M&S agreeing to stock 500 of Choc on Choc’s chocolate matchsticks in its branches ahead of Valentine’s Day, as well as working on future seasonal designs together.
“For this to happen again really takes the biscuit – excuse the pun,” said Broughton.
“Over the last few days more and more people have tagged us in posts after M&S’s giant chocolate biscuit went viral.
“They are asking if we had made it, or pointing out how suspiciously similar the design is.
“Having worked with M&S in the past and accepted their apology, why didn’t they just work with us again to see if we could collaborate or even make it for them?”
Broughton also raised the Colin-Cuthbert legal case, saying: “If Aldi makes a copy of this chocolate biscuit design next year, will M&S sue them?
“Copying can’t just be a one-way thing, it works both ways.”
The real-life Willy Wonka, who employs 20 at her Somerset chocolate-making HQ, added: “It’s been an incredibly hard year in the chocolate industry with the price of chocolate increasing by 90 per cent.
“It’s tough out there, and the last thing we need is one of the big boys taking our ideas again and passing it off as their own.
“Part of the Perfect Match design argument saw M&S propose the idea of a small business council I could lead so smaller designers could work with them, but this never materialised.
“My gut is telling me they could be copying designs from other small businesses too.”
Choc on Choc’s customers include Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, the actor Nicolas Cage, musician Sting, and members of the royal family.
Their products, which include chocolate ‘pills’ and croc shoes, are sold on Ocado, in Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges.
Marks & Spencer was approached for comment.
