Lessons Learned From Christmas 2014

We speak to a deli, food hall and fine food distributor to find out what the recent festive season has taught them, and how they plan to prepare for Christmas 2015 with these learnings in mind.

David Greenman, Arch House Deli
We took over the Arch House Deli just over five years ago in a November with no experience, and were hit with Christmas more or less straight away. A terrible approach to taking over a business, but one that does have the benefit that you do tend to learn a lot very quickly – and I’m pleased to say our turnover in December is now twice what it was in that initial Christmas.

It can feel like running a deli is all about the Christmas period, with the rest of the year being about making it through to the next Christmas. Certainly it’s the big opportunity financially, and getting it right is critical to our year. We try to consciously improve on what we do every Christmas, with the key to Christmas for us being all about the notes we make in January on how the previous festive period went and what we should do next year.

We spent time in October defining and writing down clear processes for taking pre-orders of cheese and hampers, which we went through with all the shift managers to minimise the risk of any errors. This sounds obvious, but for example, there is little point taking pre-orders for a particular cheese only to find that by the time you come to cut the cheese you don’t have enough stock to fulfil them. I’m pleased to say all the processes for customer orders worked well without any issues.

The turnover for Christmas 2014 was good – up on last year by five percent – and we were able to maintain our margins. The online shop also helped as, although it’s a relatively small part of our business, it was up 50% on the festive period last year. Looking back, the most rewarding aspect of the whole period was just how well the whole team worked together. They were all keen to know what the daily turnover was and where that put us against last year; it definitely felt like a team effort. During the run up to Christmas we had specific staff doing specific jobs which worked well; one on cheese, another on hampers etc.

We are now focused on writing the notes, on how the 2014 Christmas went and what we should do next year. This goes right down to suggested order quantities by product for next year. We get all of the team to review the notes and add in anything else they feel would benefit us next year. It takes a few days to do but it makes everything work the following year. We dust it down in August when we start putting in the orders for Christmas 2015.

Kerry Sidney at Bodnant
Christmas 2014 was extremely successful for Bodnant Welsh Food, we planned new products, offers, events and services for our customers. As a result we’ve learned what works for us – a very valuable lesson!

Christmas Market: This was the first time we organised our very own Bodnant Christmas market, where we offered customers gifts, decorations, and daily demonstrations from our in-house experts to help customers prepare their Christmas menu. It proved to be an extremely popular event for existing customers, and a reason to attract new customers to the centre. We are now planning to expand the size and the duration of the market for Christmas 2015. Our customer feedback has also lead us to plan further food events throughout the year and we have now planned a new events schedule for 2015 to celebrate the very best Welsh food and drink from producers and in-house specialists.

Prepared meals: We created an ‘All Wrapped Up For Christmas Dinner’ scheme for customers, prepared by our executive chef Dai Davies to ease the preparation for Christmas dinner for the whole family. This range included everything – from the turkey and prepared vegetables to Christmas desserts and wine. This was a successful introduction and we are now planning to introduce this offer for key occasions throughout the year – including Easter Sunday Lunch.

Food to Order for Christmas: This was extremely popular this Christmas. We are looking to expand it further this year, and introduce party food range and Christmas wine hampers.

Online shopping: This proved a very popular channel for customers this year, from purchasing cookery school courses and gift vouchers to Welsh food hampers. We are therefore planning to expand the product range online and continue to develop the site throughout the year.

Further product introductions in the farm shop: We increased the range of in-house products during Christmas, from our dairy (new cheeses, custards and ice creams), and our bakery, including a new cake range from our patisserie chef. As a result of the popularity of these, we will continue to invest in new product development throughout the year.

Mark Wiltshire, Diverse Fine Foods
Some of the key things we have learned during the Christmas period have come from listening to our customers; after all, if we don’t create a business model that works for them then how can we run a business that is all about true customer service?

A recurring comment from the majority of our independent retailers was their delight at being able to order seasonal stock during the Christmas trading period. Not having to pre-order all of their stock months in advance was great for cash flow and flexibility. We understand that as retailers it is almost impossible to predict the volumes you are going to need and even harder to know which products will be the stand-out sellers. We tried to stock all of our Christmas lines right up to Christmas and, although this is a risky way to trade, it did give us the ability to help service those last-minute orders and keep the shelves full. 

Another thing we saw from a lot of our retailers was a shift in the way they were merchandising the stores –  moving away from trying to cram as many different products into the shop as possible, instead working hard on selecting key products and stacking them high so shoppers not only had no trouble finding them. This we have seen from the replenishment orders is a very successful way to create great theatre within the store, and also something the independent retailers have the ability to do well.

I think 2015 is going to really be the time for independent food retailers to take back some power from the big four; the increase in sales of high-end food products over the festive period is a great reflection of how the consumer is becoming more aware of the food they consume.

Over the Christmas trading period the big four showed poor sales and a decline in business, whilst within this area Waitrose showed a 26.3% growth in its high end food sector and M&S food was up by 17%. This proves that the consumer will spend money on better quality food, and now is the time to capitalise on this trend for 2015.

In 2015 we will see the big four supermarkets fighting it out in a price war, whilst sadly pushing many of the smaller food producers to the brink. This gives the independent retailers a chance to really focus on what they are good at – selling amazing artisan products from great suppliers whilst being able to interact with their customers to explain the story behind the products and what makes them so good.

Have a great 2015 and here’s to a very successful year!