Less Than 60 Shopping Days Until Christmas

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?

The question we're all asking is: “What kind of Christmas will it be for the food retailer?” or “Will it be Christmas 2010 that drags us out of recession?”

My own empirical research tells me that there is actually a great deal of optimism out there at present based on the last two to three month’s sales.

At the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in September, I must have talked to around 20 gourmet food suppliers and producers and only one said that their sales were down on last year. In a further conversation with a supplier last week when I passed on this statistic, he claimed that I was being lied to by the people I talked to as it was in their interest to pretend things are better than they are. I actually disagree with him. I think we are fortunate in this industry to have a majority of honest and straight-forward colleagues who tell it as it is.

My own view is that this Christmas will be stronger than last year – and I don’t think that was as bad as people thought it was going to be. It has been helped by many of the larger speciality retailers getting their displays out earlier and maximising the opportunity for selling gifts in the run-up to Christmas.

Our advance Christmas sales were 20 per cent up on last year and we have still had an avalanche of orders in the last couple of weeks from those that really should have got organised a bit earlier in the year!

I think confidence is spreading. The smaller retailers have seen the fantastic displays at some of the larger ones which has given them the confidence to order. One potential fly in the ointment (although easily resolved) is the impending postal strike.

How a group of people with secure jobs can jeopardise the jobs of others during a recession beggars belief. I am sure there are faults on both sides, but these issues can always be resolved by talking, which neither side is prepared to do without conditions.

If your business is still using cheques which go in the post, it is time to move into the 21st century. We got rid of our cheque books years ago. There is even more reason to pay by BACS now as most banks are transferring the money the same day into the creditor’s account. “The cheque is in the post” line never did carry much weight, but it holds even less now. Make life easier for your suppliers by paying them straight into their bank account. This is also a far greener option as well.