They do say that people who work in chocolate factories always lose their taste for the stuff. Not so Railton Elliott, 51, founder and managing director of Elliotts of Oxford, purveyor of some of the world's finest chocolates to some of Britain's top addresses.

Talk about a passion for chocolate. He said: "I never tire of the best things in life and chocolate is definitely one of them."

We were discussing his company's latest creation: a 60 Kg chocolate model of the Ritz Hotel in London, measuring 1.25 by 0.75 metres, temporarily on show at the company's Kidlington headquarters.

Well heeled guests at the Ritz are to be invited to bid for the model, which will be housed in a special cabinet in the five-star hotel's lobby .

Mr Elliott explained: "The chocolate Ritz is this company's contribution to the real Ritz's centenary celebrations It will be displayed in a specially built cabinet in the lobby and guests will be invited to bid for it."

The proceeds of the auction will go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Appeal.

Mr Elliott said: "I founded the firm 25 years ago. For 20 of those years we've been supplying the Ritz and I felt this was a good way to show our appreciation."

Now the company employs seven people in Kidlington and another eight at its factory in Ostende, Belgium. It turns over £750,000 a year, up from £250,000 four years ago.

Apart from the Ritz, Elliotts of Oxford also supply such famous hotels as the Savoy, Four Seasons, Landmark, Grosvenor House and Dorchester. Not to mention the Randoph in Oxford, where chocolates are delivered to some guests in a box the shape of a student's mortar board.

He said: "I worked in hotels in London including the Intercontinental and the Grosvenor House but then decided to branch out on my own and, being half Belgian, I knew what I wanted to do sell Belgian chocolates."

In 1987 he opened a Belgian chocolate shop in Summertown, north Oxford, which, sadly, was not a success.

He said: "I got it all back to front. I had spotted a trend in the hotel business for giving away chocolates, so I developed a wholesale side of the business. It took off while the shop did terribly. In 1993 I closed the shop and moved the business to Kidlington." Now his wife Dawn co-runs the wholesale business.

"I am afraid she got me and the business, for better or for worse," he quipped. "But, as a matter of fact, I think we balance each other well. We have clearly defined roles. Dawn does the administration and I do the selling and dispatching and flamboyant things like ordering models of the Ritz."

It seems to work. Four years ago the business employed five people in Kidlington. Now the business is still expanding and the Elliotts are looking for another two people to add to the nine already there.

Mr Elliott said that, in the past, he had been something of a serial entrepreneur, starting several businesses. He said it was as if he never decided what he wanted to do when he grew up!

But four years ago he divested himself of all other business interests in order to concentrate on chocolate and now the wholesale hotel trade has blossomed.

n Contact: Elliotts of Oxford: 01865 373343