A Great Summer

What a great summer so far, although as I write this I hear of heavy rain in the North-West. I can’t remember the last time it rained in the South. Great weather for BBQ products and drinks sales; I hope you are all making the most of it.

It is always at the hottest time of year that my team are focusing on Christmas more than any other time of year. The sales team are out getting orders (100% up on last year so far), which shows a certain degree of optimism about the economic conditions! The purchasing team is busy liaising with suppliers regarding initial orders and negotiating on some extra warehouse space, hopefully without losing focus on the present. I must put in a confession at this point of my frustration with some customers who refuse to place Christmas orders until September well after our deadline for ordering from many suppliers and then complain that they can’t order what they want!

Our Christmas catalogue was printed in April, why wait 6 months before ordering, we are not asking for any money up front, just an order, what is wrong with getting organized, especially when it helps us give you good service?

Talking of heat, what we experience here is nothing compared to New York. I am just back from the Big Apple, where it was touching 100 degrees, even hot for them - and they had cooling rooms set up for those residents without air-con to go and cool down. As well as taking my son to experience the delights of that happening city, I was attending the Fancy Food Show - the first one I have been to in New York. A great event and crammed full of interesting artisan food products. Speciality Food is very much alive and kicking over there - in fact I get the impression that there is far less dominance by one of two supermarkets, which allows the independent sector to be a larger noise than in the UK. If only we could get back to that here! But let’s face it, Tescos et al are here to stay, but I really do feel despite their ever-increasing profits the speciality food sector is very buoyant at present - let’s keep pushing on in the face of competition.