We’re nearly there!

10 December 2012, 10:11 am
Speciality Bites by Paul Hargreaves

The biggest two weeks of food retail are upon us, and as we, as a wholesaler, start to wind down, our retail customers pick up from us on the mammoth days works and mahusive number of customers

I suspect when we sit down and analyse the last quarter of this year for speciality food retail we will be encouraged.  I have just written the following for our Jan 2013 catalogue introduction.  (Yes, that’s right, despite despatching record numbers of orders over the past few weeks, we are busy putting to bed our next catalogue and launch this with our sales team this week!)

“As I write this we are drawing our frenetic activity to a close in December.  October and November broke all records by absolutely miles, and two weeks away from Christmas, we still have repeat orders flooding in, and the handful of retailers I have spoken to this week are all reporting higher footfall and spend in their stores than a year ago.  All very encouraging and whatever is happening in the nation as a whole, it is clear that the market for speciality food is growing and consumers are choosing to spend money on quality products that aren’t available in the supermarkets.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating though and the real test of whether a Christmas has been successful is a) how much stock there is left in our warehouse on 21st December and b) how much the retailers have left on Christmas Eve.  I suspect though this year we will look back with a smile on our faces.  We have had a higher demand for Christmas goods in December than ever before and hopefully that will continue this week as we start discounting to empty the warehouse.

You may have noticed that my “weekly blog” has missed a few weeks.  Remember that piece I wrote in December about working “on” the business and not “in” it?  Well I have broken all my own rules and have been thoroughly sucked into the day-to-day operations since my return from Cuba, which, of course, made that week even more essential to plan for 2013.  I hope to get back to that very task this week.

Have a very busy two weeks – I look forward to hearing your Christmas Tales 2012.

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