All Work, No Play…?

All Work, No Play….?

Well it is certainly that time of year for us – we have just had our busiest 8 weeks of the year and everything should start to return to sanity soon, just as the retailers start to have their manic time of year. I have been so busy this is my first blog of November, well that will never do, will it?! Or did I hear you breathing a sigh of relief!

The speciality food world is, I think, undergoing something of a transformation at present with a certain degree of re-positioning going on. There is certainly a more hard-nosed approach being taken by certain players, one of whom is telling some of our existing suppliers that they will only continue to sell their products if they stop supplying us. Of course, that isn’t going down too well at all, with the suppliers or us. There is a fine dividing line here. Clearly from the retailer’s point of view it is important to have a choice and not to be forced to use a certain wholesaler for one product they can’t buy elsewhere. From our point of view as a wholesaler it is far easier to put our energy behind a range or a brand if we know we are the only or at least the preferred wholesaler.

Fortunately, due to our openness we are normally the preferred wholesaler, if not exclusive, as we are offering more partnership to the brand owner or supplier than others. We are back to the discussion a couple of months ago raised by the Fine Food Digest, who did promise to publish my reply to that strange article, but seem to have forgotten to do so. Partnership is most definitely the way forward.

In fact I can see there being a further move towards wholesalers who are happy to offer contact with the producers not less. This is due to a move within farm shops and delicatessens to be a little more careful in recent months with their wage bill. There seems to be a move to reduce staff which means that it is more efficient to deal with a wholesaler who charges the same prices as going direct, as the time spent placing orders, receiving deliveries and paying invoices is far less.

The only other option is to ask too much of your staff, which I have possibly been guilty of recently. In a business that is heavily seasonal this is difficult to avoid though as brining in temporary people sometimes causes more trouble than it is worth. So in effect we are invoicing double normal weeks at present with the same team, as well as trying to put together next year’s range – hence the title of this blog. Part of their reward will be a floating Christmas party on the River Thames next month and I am sure we will let of some steam that night!

Overall how do I think the market is at present? The next few weeks will tell, but I am quietly confident that the nation will eat its way out of the economic downturn. I think retailers will have a good Christmas and 2012 will be much more positive than the last few months have been. Wait and see!