For the six months to Dec. 26 the luxury chocolate maker, retailer and wholesaler made a pretax profit of 24.1 million pounds ($32 million), up from 15.5 million pounds a year earlier, on revenue up 40% to 142.9 million pounds.

Hotel Chocolat sells its products online and through sites in the UK, Japan and the United States. It also has an organic cacao farm, hotel and visitor attraction in Saint Lucia, as well as a chocolate factory in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.

The company said inflationary pressures were mitigated, with profits growing faster than sales.

Trading so far in 2022 has continued to be in line with the board's expectations.

"The multi-channel performance of the UK remains encouraging, and the new markets continue to show promising potential for growth and profitability," said CEO Angus Thirlwell, who co-founded the business in 1993 and owns 27% of the equity.

Shares in Hotel Chocolat, up 21% over the last year, closed on Tuesday at 450 pence, valuing the business at 622 million pounds.

($1 = 0.7532 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Mark Potter)