Summer’s Nearly Done

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?

What a great summer! I hope we have a while to go yet, but it’s time for me to go away and re-charge my batteries before the onslaught of the autumn, which brings more trade shows and Christmas deliveries going out to our customers

An average week at that time of year is double what an average week is during the rest of the year, so all holidays are banned!  Our latest sales figures for Christmas are staggering – I won’t embarrass our competition here by giving you the percentage increase, but quite amazing!  So either our competitors are struggling, which I don’t believe, or people are spending more in speciality retailers compared to the supermarkets or the economy really has turned around.

The second two of these factors are probably both true.  The latest government stats and indeed European figures published this week suggest that the economy is on the up – unemployment reduced again and the Eurozone countries showed their first quarter of growth (0.2%) for 18 months. However, I also think that independent food shops are still benefitting from the anti-supermarket feeling from the horsemeat scandal way back at the start of the year.  Some consumers undoubtedly tried something different at that time and liked it!  I still believe there is a lot more that independent retailers can do to get people through the door – and actually I am still disappointed there weren’t more pantomime horses outside the supermarket doors at the time of the horsemeat scandal.  One reason my business has done well in recent years is because of innovative marketing, and we are fighting against the supermarkets rather than other wholesalers, the marketing needs to be so much better, as they have far more money to throw at it.  Think about being different when you are on the beach this summer.

Hopefully I will find some quiet beaches somewhere in Central America over the next two weeks to do a little reflecting on what I am doing in life, in business.  It’s always good to step away from what you are doing and cast a critical eye back at yourself.  I will still make sure I have plenty of time to enjoy the local food and drink.  You may hear from me whilst I am there, but it not see you at Speciality & Fine Food Fair in 3 weeks.