Our Story

To then chocolates had been very traditional but this approach was different – using hand-carved “master” moulds to create bespoke-looking chocolates but on a mass scale.

Looking for a change of direction, Leigh and Nicki started DPS Designs to move down the supply chain – taking the core creativity of Exquisite – and selling it back to chocolatiers in the form of moulds. Aardman Animations were one of our early customers, for whom we recreated the iconic Wallace and Gromit figures in chocolate!

We’ve constantly invested in technology and we were early adopters of CAD/CAM software and CNC technology in mould making. This was our first, based on the classic Bridgeport manual mill.

Today we have 15 high spec CNC machines and high speed machining centres, which can hold a 2 micron tolerance. That’s two 1000ths of a millimeter! We also have a team of 12 CAD/CAM experts.

We bought our own premises which seemed huge at the time but we’ve now expanded beyond it to 3 main sites – Design and Tooling, Plastics Production, R&D.

The next step-change in our development came when we got contacted by a local large-scale aerospace interiors manufacturer looking for toolmaking. They knew we had only ever made tools for ourselves but they saw our potential and we have never looked back.

40% of our business is now in aerospace, automotive, mass transport and off-highway toolmaking – it works perfectly with our confectionery business (all shapes need a tool) even if to the uninitiated it seems strange to have chocolate and aerospace under one roof!

The next major transition that took us to where we are today is injection moulding. We started off working with a sub contractor in 2012 but quickly realised we need to do everything in-house which we’ve been doing since 2017.

The faith in the team, our product mix and strong direction paid off with the first £1 million turnover year. This was a major boost after the tough couple of years following the 2008/9 and importantly GP had returned to expected levels leading to a much more healthy bottom line.

In 2016, we started working directly with M&S. We were given M&S In Touch Supplier Award, for being a great long term partner for them who inspires their customers, innovates with them, acts with integrity and is in touch with their business.

We were awarded the inaugural Women In Innovation Award by InnovateUK, the UK government innovation agency, for our ground breaking method in chocolate moulding. We were given £50k funding as well as support in growing the business and numerous publicity.

We’ve always been everyone’s best kept secret. We decided to start to change that and push ourselves out there more resulting in us applying for our first award - and we won! We were very proud to win the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for our international trade growth and meeting the King!

We’ve now followed that up with winning the Gloucestershire Business Award’s Most Innovatve Business of the Year in 2022 and finalist for the Greatest British Entrepreneur Award.

Today we have a business with around 40 people, going into our 30th year, with the same passion for chocolate innovation as when Leigh was a chocolatier himself but with a new generation pushing the business forward.

We have a diverse business supporting toolmaking far outside the borders of chocolate, to press tooling, composites and polyurethanes – all under one roof and with the same commitment to excellence and customer service as when we began.