Installers in hot chocolate manage to lose the pounds instead of putting them on!

The installation throughout Bendicks’ offices and factory in Winchester was handled during the company’s annual Easter maintenance period to avoid production downtime and product contamination. Technical director for Bendicks, Evelyn Weddell, said: “Wessex’s installers were excellent. We needed to complete all the work within the maintenance period and they finished well within time.”

Even in the downtime period chocolate is kept in a melted state and fitters worked in high temperatures above huge sealed vats of hot chocolate. Mark Taylor of Dorset-based Wessex said: “Normally you associate chocolate with putting on a few pounds, but in that heat our fitters probably lost a few!”

Bendicks is renowned for its range of high quality chocolate confectionery. The company was formed by chocolate and pastry confectioners Mr Benson and Colonel Dickson in 1930 and was originally based in London before moving to Winchester in the 1960s.