It was while wandering round a small holiday resort in Argentina that Helen Pattinson found the inspiration for her business.

She and her husband Simon had given up their jobs in Britain to travel the world for a year, and were passing through the town of San Carlos de Bariloche in the foothills of the Andes. While they were there Simon became ill with a stomach bug, so Pattinson spent several days wandering around on her own. The town was full of enchanting chocolate shops and the experience opened her eyes.

“There were really interesting shops with amazing products I had never seen before,” she said. “I spent most of my time just wandering around buying a few bits and pieces and tasting what they were doing. They had an amazing approach to chocolate, just completely different to anything I had seen in Britain.

“There were a lot of chocolatiers making chocolate on the premises so it was quite theatrical. Some were more like chocolate houses so they would have people drinking hot chocolate.”

When she walked into one shop that was laid out like a chocolate supermarket, Pattinson had a moment of revelation.

“I just thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to work with chocolate,” she said. “How is it that a shop like this is sustainable here in what is a tiny town, whereas in Britain we consume so much chocolate and yet what is available is pretty poor?

“It was a eureka moment. I went back to Simon and told him he had to come out and look at all these shops because they were amazing. He could see what I meant immediately.”

One of four children, Pattinson was born and brought up in Surrey. Her father was a director of several large companies so she enjoyed a comfortable childhood and went to private school.

At 18 she went to university at King’s College London to read maths and business studies, and then went to law school for two years before becoming a solicitor.

She met her husband through work and the couple settled down to enjoy a comfortable life. By their late twenties, however, they had begun to feel restless. So in 1999 they gave up their jobs with the law firm, sold their house and went travelling for several months in South America with the aim of finding some inspiration for what they wanted to do with their lives.

“We were very keen to have our own business. We had a notebook and we would write down anything. We came up with some quite ridiculous ideas,” said Pattinson.

Excited by the discovery of the Argentinian chocolate shops, the couple started researching the chocolate market in Britain in 2000 when they came home.

They wrote a business plan and went round the country finding chocolatiers who could make products for a shop. Then they raised £160,000 – half from the sale of their house in London, the rest from friends and family – and found a shop to lease in Brighton, Sussex.

Originally the idea was to simply open a shop and sell high-quality chocolate made by British suppliers.

“We felt there was a gap in the market – that the quality end wasn’t really being served at all, and certainly not in your average high street,” said Pattinson.

But just before the shop was due to open their leading supplier, who was going to be the source of 50% of their stock, went bust.

“It was a total disaster,” said Pattinson. “We had already done our research of the chocolate makers in Britain and knew that there was nobody else who could make what they were making.”

Pattinson realised they had two choices – to give up their whole business idea, or make the chocolate themselves. Within 24 hours they had decided to become chocolate makers as well. They found a production unit, some equipment, and set about teaching themselves how to make high-quality chocolate.

“It was weeks of practice and rejects and chocolate up the wall,” she said.

Just a few weeks later they opened their first shop, calling it Montezuma’s after the Aztec emperor of Mexico, where chocolate was held in high esteem.

It was an instant success. “We opened at midday on a Saturday, and people just kept on coming. From day one we thought we have hit on something people love.”

The business broke even in its first year and the Pattinsons opened a second shop in Chichester. With the help of a £250,000 bank loan, they now have seven shops in southeast England and sell chocolate through their website.

A more significant change has been the move into wholesale, which now accounts for most of their sales. Today Montezuma’s sells its chocolate, all of which is made in-house, to 2,000 delis and farm shops as well as Waitrose. Turnover this year is expected to be £5m.

In hindsight, said Pattinson, having to produce all the chocolate themselves has been the making of the business.

“Obviously we make a better margin on it, but more importantly it means we have control of what we are making. We can do small trial runs of products and test them in just one store if we want to.”

Pattinson, now 37, admits to making a couple of mistakes. One of them was “not keeping an eye on the financials and thinking they would look after themselves”.

“I would go into a shop and take comfort that the business was fine from the fact that it looked busy and was taking money – whereas that doesn’t tell you if your margins are dropping or you are not having a fantastic Easter and so will have thousands of pounds of stock left over,” said Pattinson.

She and Simon, who have two children, own 90% of the business.

Pattinson said the secret of her success has been a love of her product. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I had been selling widgets.”

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