Willy Wonka eat your heart out. Two brothers have opened up a chocaholic's dream in North Yorkshire.

THE Chocolate Factory in Hutton-le-Hole might not have an army of Oompah Loompahs, but they do have tubs of constantly swirling melting chocolate, the shelves are piled high with chocolate in all shapes, and varieties - and just the delicious smell alone is enough to make a chocoholic swoon in delight.

Three years ago, brothers Gareth and Chris East were a long way from the North York Moors and each other. Gareth was teaching English in Madrid; Chris was in Guildford working for Sky.

They both came home to Thornton-le- Dale when their father was terminally ill. And a news item about the nation's passion for chocolate - Britons eat more than anyone else in the world - set them off on a new career.

"We started off in our parents' kitchen, with a bain marie just making chocolate bears," says Gareth. "We had a tiny stall in a corner of a craft shop in Thornton-le-Dale and we kept selling out. So we made more. Then more. And it just sort of expanded..."

Now they have two shops, one in Thornton-le-Dale, the other in Hutton-le-Hole where customers can see the chocolates being made, two companies, The Chocolate Factory and The Diabetic Chocolate Factory, and a thriving Internet business.

In the back of the shop are sacks of what look like huge chocolate buttons - some of the six tonnes of best Belgian chocolate they use in a year - the machines that melt the chocolate and maintain it at the right temperature. Stacks of moulds are piled high on the shelves, chocolate figures cool, and Chris deftly wraps them in between serving the steady stream of customers who pour into the small shop.

Also on the shelf is a supply of bottles - Baileys, Cointreau, Malibu, Southern Comfort, Amaretto, Glen- morangie...

"We only use the real stuff, " says Chris. "Proper Belgian chocolate and proper ingredients, real strawberry, real vanilla."

They make all sorts of different fillings, including Bailey's cream - by far the most popular, they've sold over 30,000 since they've been in business - rum truffles, fruit and nut clusters, strawberry creams and Glenmorangie truffles. They keep experimenting with new ideas too.

"We made a pineapple cream with a pecan on top. I thought it was great, but it wasn't very popular, but others have worked well - like the Glenmorangie truffle. Or the fruit and nut cluster, which is a variation on a classic."

As well as the filled chocolates the brothers also make a huge variety of chocolate figures - footballs, footballers, trains, clowns, ducks, dinosaurs, policemen, Hutton-le-Hole sheep, three wise monkeys, just about anything.

So that everyone can share in the treats they also have a range of diabetic chocolate. There is always plenty available in the shop and such was the demand that last year they set up another company, The Diabetic Chocolate Company, to meet the demand.

"We sell a lot of diabetic chocolate over the Internet. Many our customers are tourists, especially in the summer of course, and once people have been here and know we exist and what we do, once they go home, they'll continue to order from us."

As well as all their regular products, there are the seasonal specialities - all those Santas at Christmas, Easter eggs. They even made a special chocolate horse to mark Ascot's visit to York.

Still slightly to their surprise, the brothers now spend all their days thinking, making, selling chocolate.

And no, they 're not sick of it.

"We still love it," they say cheerfully, "Chocolate is good."

Hard to disagree.

*The Chocolate Factory, Hutton-le-Hole. Tel: (01751) 417084. Summer opening 10.30am - 5.30pm seven days a week.

www.The-Chcolate-Factory.co.uk.