THEY MAY serve chocolate to the stars and cater for the most discerning palates but an Alderley Edge-based chocolatier now faces a bitter sweet future.

Success has led to growth and now the company could be forced to leave its origins in the village.

Paul Swindells and Gareth Jenkins started the Chocolate Trading Company in Alderley Edge in 2002, trading from their Chorley Hall Lane shop and online.

They built up a global following, even hitting the headlines after supplying 22 carat gold flecked chocolate for exclusive events - including The Oscars in Hollywood and more recently expanding to Bollywood.

In the last year alone, online sales soared by 47 per cent and it now sells more single origin chocolate than exclusive London department store, Fortnum & Masons.

But with their premises due to be converted into offices and a fruitless six month search for a new home, Paul and Gareth fear the days of trading from Alderley Edge could soon be over.

Paul said: "The long and short of it is they [the developers] plan to knock down the whole building and re-develop it with modern offices, so basically we have to move out.

"We are finding it increasingly difficult to find somewhere locally. There isn't any property left which hasn't been ear-marked for re-development, so it looks at this point like we will have to move out of the village.

"It's bitter sweet really.

"It's good that we've got a lot bigger, but it's a real shame as it all started here and we wanted to stay where it started."

The company is appealing for help from anyone in the neighbourhood who may know of a suitable property so they can continue to build their business in the area.

"We would be so gutted if we moved and then found out there was somewhere around.

"A suitable place would need to be around 2,500 square feet and any type of building.

"There are lots of places which could be suitable: old schools, farms, any type of old building, an old garage even with a forecourt.

"It's just got to be practical and ideally on one floor. The large part of our business is mail order, so we have a lot of deliveries.

"It would be inconvenient to be on the high street as we need more warehousing, than shop frontage.

"But we would like to be able to provide a small shop area so customers can continue to call into the shop.

"There's been a lot of negativity with shops having to leave so it would be nice for something positive to stay", he adds.

Ideally the pair would like to buy.