Kelly's Chocolate Fountains, Stanford le Hope

PUBLISHED: 10:09 10 February 2015 | UPDATED: 10:09 10 February 2015

EXG FEB 15 PRODUCERS

Archant

WHEN Kelly Wells began her business back in 1997, it was to be a hobby initially. Kelly explains: 'We started with balloons for parties and special occasions and then I bought our first chocolate fountain and it just took off so fast. We started taking it to wedding fairs and within three months I'd had to purchase three more fountains!'

Now Kelly owns the largest chocolate fountain in the UK and hires it for weddings and special occasions. ‘It’s absolutely huge, its 9ft tall with its own custom-made stand and light box and it takes three or four of us just to lift the stand!’ The fountain takes 40-50kg of chocolate which Kelly gets from the same supplier she’s used since she began her business — Justin Posner in Watford. ‘People tell us they’ve never seen anything like it before,’ Kelly continues.

The fountains can be supplied with traditional brown chocolate but Kelly also does chocolate fountains in pink, an orange one, milk hazelnut and caramel too. She can also supply Champagne fountains which can also be used for wine, fruit juice or extremely popular Baileys fountains. ‘They come with 300 chocolate cups and you fill the cup with Baileys from the fountain and then eat the whole thing, which is really nice.’

Her fountains and other partywear have attracted interest from celebrities and film companies too. ‘We’ve down TOWIE. They wanted popcorn, candyfloss, waffles and crepes, and we’ve been featured on the series and met everybody, which was lovely. We did the final episode of the Alan Titchmarsh Show recently. They had all the cast there and we did a chocolate fountain for him and got to meet him and his crew. We also did Big Brother with our chocolate fountain; the contestants had to do a task in the house so we were asked to go along and set up the room with one of our fountains, which was live on telly, and they let us look around behind the scenes and watch the contestants too.’

Kelly was also asked to help with a party at singer Craig David’s home. ‘They’d all been filming, I think for Children in Need, in the desert and Craig invited Lorraine Kelly, Dermot O’Leary, Olly Murs and others back to his house and we supplied a fountain and some other bits for him and we’ve also done the Soap Awards for several years in a row now. It’s been an amazing journey and we’ve really enjoyed it and met some lovely people along the way.’

Kelly’s fountains will travel and she was asked to take a Champagne fountain out of the country. ‘Two of our girls took a fountain over to Milan for Essex Fashion Week,’ she adds. Helped by husband Wayne and an able team, the couple explains that the new must-have for 2015 events is a photobooth.

‘We hire them and you have them at your party or wedding and there are even props for the guests to use. It takes four shots, so your guests can dress up in different hats if they want to and every photo is personalised. These booths are definitely the in-thing to have at your party. People seem to like what we do and I just try to make the best of what we can do for people.’

Get the taste

Kelly’s Occasions

Stanford le Hope

01375 640020

www.kellysoccasions.co.uk

Three more to try

Melting Chocolate Moments

22 Tokely Road

Frating

Colchester

CO7 7GA

01206 250278