Christmas is Coming…

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

Well, Christmas is in full swing now at retailers and wholesalers throughout the UK. Well, not quite, but we have received around 50% of our Christmas orders and there will be a flurry of orders between now and when the schools break up in a few weeks

In fact in this job, I never manage to quite extract myself from thoughts of Christmas.  Quite sad really isn’t it! 

We had our first planning meeting for Christmas this year on Monday 5th January, were planning the range throughout February and March, Christmas Sales Meeting in April and managing the team selling in Christmas and attending a few roadshows throughout the last few months.  Paradoxically once we draw closer to Christmas itself in September and our warehouse has to grow expandable walls, I am much less involved as our excellent operational team take over in despatching the orders to our customers.

I am frequently asked by customers, why they have to do their Christmas orders so early as some of them begin to feel under pressure from the sales team to get their orders in.  It’s not just us – it’s everyone in the sector, by the way.  Well, the main reason is that as we are dealing in the main with small suppliers, many of them need to plan their production now for the next few months, they may need to employ extra staff to cope with the demand. Secondly, whilst our all-year-round (AYR) range is all held in stock ready for customers to order one day and receive it 2-3 days later, our Christmas range is all bought in by us according to the orders we have in our system.  Thirdly, more of our Christmas range is imported, and many suppliers, particularly in Italy and France close down in August, so need to start production in July.  And fourthly some products come from even further afield and take a while to arrive in the UK.  Hopefully that is helpful in explaining why, in the speciality food sector, and the food sector in general, Christmas starts ridiculously early.

There was a seminar at the Harrogate Fine Food Show by Charlie Turnbull and Georgina Mason for retailers helping them prepare for Christmas as yes, it really does start now.  Place yours orders, work out where you are going to merchandise all the extra stock – some farm shops actually put up a marquee for extra retail space!  Ensure that your staffing rotas allow for the extra customers.  Think about how you are going to market your retail outlet and THE place to come and buy gifts for Christmas, and plan for some taster/preview evenings for your most valuable customers.

All done – now have a holiday and come back ready for your best Christmas ever!