It really does seem that we are all heading into this summer in a much more positive frame of mind than last year.  All the farm shop, deli and food hall retailers I talked to in the first quarter of 2012 had a much better start to the year than last year, and many said it was the best since 2009.  So spirits are high heading into the summer!  So what can we do in our stores to maximise sales during this busy summer period?

To say the obvious first, it is a big British Year and many producers are making special products to cash in on the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics  - yes they will be the ones with the Union Flag all over them!  Most definitely a bank of products like this will make an eye-catching display, and certainly most speciality retailers should do this, and why not put up some Union Flag bunting as well and draw attention to all the British cheese and meat that you sell. Indeed some retailers started this in January!  I would issue one word of caution though; if these displays are up from Easter to when the Paralympics ends in September then they will lose their impact and customers will stop seeing them.  For maximum impact do the British displays in bursts. It may be best to make a big splash for the Jubilee week (1^st week of June) and then again at the end of July for the Olympics through August.  (Just a quick word of warning here that retailers and suppliers near Olympic events may have to overcome logistical barriers to supply during the games - worth checking out)

Whilst there is no doubt that this is the year to focus on British products more than any other nation, and many of you rightly do this all year anyway, there is also the opportunity in the summer to bring other nations food into focus.  The (hopefully) Mediterranean weather that occasionally graces these shores in May-August is an ideal opportunity to have a focus on Mediterranean cheeses, olives, snacks etc.  Particularly one nation e.g. Greece, Spain or Italy at a time might have an impact on the weekend impulse shoppers especially if there was a different focus each week for ,say, four weeks.  Clearly all these kind of displays require some degree of planning, but there are some friendly ambient and chilled wholesalers out there who can offer you several ranges of diverse products with minimal effort on your behalf!

Just a quick aside on social media - many retailers are now on Twitter and are seeing the benefits of driving customers into their shops when there are new products available.  Why not offer some incentive for those coming into your shop and mentioning a key word they would only know about through Twitter.  People will re-tweet and bring even more customers in - and so on!  That is the positive power of social media.  It goes without saying that any kinds of special event or display should be tweeted about until you are blue in the face!

Talking of colours, whilst many of us make a huge effort to make our shops look festive during the run-up to Christmas, how many of us make the same effort for the summer months. Bright or pastel colours or indeed any big displays of summer colours let our customers know we are aware what season it is and we are not just selling the same products as we were back in February.  This leads me back to three favourite words of mine - merchandise, merchandise, merchandise!  Buy big, make large displays and make your products look successful and striking!  Most suppliers and wholesalers will offer special prices for pallet quantities of product which not only make those particular products look striking, but also, because there is a large volume of product, positively reinforce in the customer’s mind that those products are very popular.  Combined with offering them some kind of deal all helps to develop a talking point within the store. Also the good producers will come in and do tastings alongside the displays - just ask.  Go on, be brave and buy big!

Clearly the time to make the most of these big summer selling opportunities is when the sun comes out!  It is well worth looking at the mid-term weather forecast to plan ahead.  This is what the supermarkets do, and then, surprise, surprise as soon as the heat wave starts, their aisles are full of barbeque products and there are pallets of charcoal outside the front door.  This isn’t ordered on the day the hot weather starts - it is planned for! Most suppliers can respond within 4-5 days so that is all you need to be ahead of the weather.  Talking of charcoal I am always surprised how few farm shops and garden centres make the most of this opportunity in the summer.  It is certainly worth having a few pallets stashed away you can bring out when the sun shines - there is no shelf-life and it won’t deteriorate, so why not?

Of course, the school summer holidays may well bring hordes of children into your shop accompanied by their parents, who are desperate to find things to do during the five or so weeks of school holidays when they aren’t actually away on holiday.  Ensure there are activities for children to do (for the larger stores) or products suitable for children’s picnics (everyone) - why not make the most of pester power, as well as educating families to eat more healthily.  These families are also likely to come to your own café for a meal or afternoon tea.  Ensure that there are products plugged in the café that are available for sale in the shop and let them know! Cross-selling is king - and we could all do more of it!

A special mention at this point for ice cream - everyone know the large profit margins in selling ice cream cones - Duncan Bannatyne didn’t get where he is today without ice-cream!   Don’t leave all the profits to the ice-cream man.  Is it worth employing the services of a student to set up a market stall outside your shop selling ice-creams to passers-by who may not necessarily step inside your shop.  Even in an out-of-town farm shop it may well be worth setting up a stall in the car park selling ice-cream or even strawberries, asparagus etc…

Some of these ideas may not work for you, but it is worth thinking creatively and doing something different.  Successful businesses are usually those that have had the most failures as they are not frightened to try new ideas.  Not all will work, but some will and could make a profound difference to your bottom lines this summer - and I am not talking bikinis!

Whatever you do, have fun, and ensure your team enjoy themselves at work.  It is well-proven that customers spend more when the workers are happy and have fun at work.  So make sure they are smiling even when the sun isn’t shining and have a great summer.

It is a long time since I have been to the Balkans - too long in fact! The last time was just up the road from here in Kosovo (then part of Serbia) and war was breaking out all over the former Yugoslavia just as I was leaving, which was a little awkward. This part of Europe has within it some hidden gems, one of which is Macedonia, which is where I am writing from now. I am here to spend some a few days with our Macedonian supplier - Pelagonia, whose products are gaining a increased following in the UK, only 3 months after we launched in January. In fact there are a few aspects of this embryonic business that are an example to us and that we can learn from.

The products themselves are absolutely delicious by the way - see http://bit.ly/IMjIoP for more information. It is a tight range in attractive jars and all 6 products are very typical Macedonian products, unlikely to be found anywhere else. Having said that I was slightly nervous when launching the brand in the UK, largely because of the almost unpronounceable names and that not many in the UK would be aware of Macedonian cuisine. However, Philip and his business partner, Andrej, did the kind of things that help launch a speciality food brand and have certainly helped us with the launch which is often the most difficult part.

Firstly, they clearly did some research on the market they wanted to target in the UK and realised that they needed a key route to market, which in this case happened to be Cotswold Fayre. They courted us for a number of months, so that by the time we were putting together our new 2012 range, Pelagonia were well and truly on our radar, and we weren’t going to leave them out! Secondly they exhibited at Speciality & Fine Food Fair in 2011, which gave them retailers to target after they launched as well as learning more about the market. Thirdly whilst this was going on Philip was actively targeting the social media channels and building both brand awareness amongst consumers and retailers as well as an anticipation for launch. (Actually this anticipation built even more than planned as we were two weeks late with the launch due to a very harsh winter in Macedonia.)

All the above made our job easier once we had the product in stock and the sales team were selling it. It is so much easier for them to sell products into retailers if there is a glimmer of brand awareness, which with this range, there is! Clearly there is a long way to go - we have just received in our second consignment of product. However, particularly the social media element will definitely continue to help the brand grow in the UK, and is something brand owners can do to help build their brand even when they are not in the same country. Just a shame more of them don’t do it!

Back home tomorrow on the strangely named Wizz Air, for a busy rest of the week. We are hosting a “Meet the Buyer” event on Wednesday at our premises with Taste South East and launch our Christmas range with our sales team on Thursday - one of my favourite days of the year. Talk to you again soon!

Well, the Grocer confirmed in this week’s issue what I had first published the week before, that the wife of Waitrose CEO, Mark Price, has been the director of a business that has been treating food suppliers appalling for years at Plant and Harvest in High Wycombe.  Her company never once paid their invoices on time, frequently taking over 90, and finally went into administration just before last Christmas - at the time of year when they had most stock in the shop.  This is, of course, the best way of gaining most free stock from their suppliers, whom they now won’t be paying.

To see £3,500 going down the pan like this is frustrating to say the least.  Even more so that the site is still trading as Plant & Harvest, simply under a different limited company name.  The shares of the new company are owned in entirety, by a 76 year-old gardener, which raises the question of whether this is a phoenix company, actually controlled by the previous directors, including Judith Price.  We may never know the answer to that question, but from previous experience it is very frustrating how often a phoenix company mysteriously arises out of the ashes.  We wait and see if the Grocer’s investigation unearths any new information.

Despite the bad debts I wrote about last time, it has been a very encouraging spring.  I was quoted recently in Fine Food Digest, as describing last year “like wading through treacle”.  Well this spring the treacle has turned into a much lighter syrup.  Easter seems to have been a reasonably trading period for customers, and we are receiving many orders at present for the Jubilee range, which caused most interest at the show a couple of weeks ago.  My tip on this would be to merchandise heavily for the Jubilee, and then take it down and merchandise a second time for the Olympics.  This will make the Olympic display fresh rather than making it look like a faded Jubilee display.

The passing of Easter must mean that Christmas is on its way!  Our Christmas 2012 catalogue goes to the printers this week, and the sell-in starts at the beginning of May.  Sorry if this is all too depressing!

My main focus for the next few weeks is to sell tables for our Charity Summer Ball in July. We have sold nearly 100 seats, so another 200 to go.  Places are available to anyone in the Speciality Food sector, and it will prove to be quite an event with many familiar faces there. I hope you can join us.

Generally exhibitors seemed pleased with Food & Drink Expo up at the NEC last week, although the numbers were down on the Sunday (largely due to the heat wave), this was made up for on Monday and Tuesday. Certainly for us we saw a large number of customers and it was a great opportunity to show them some of our new products including the very well-received Jubilee/Olympic range.

One thing that made the show special for me was a superb meal out at Lasan in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham. I last went to this contemporary Indian restaurant4 years ago. Since then it won Gordon Ramsey’s “Local Restaurant of the Year” and the coveted F word trophy. You can always tell a good restaurant when you are greeted at the door by name, and when you are 5 minutes late being taken to your table being brought not one but two ‘amuses bouches’. If you are ever in Birmingham, make sure you go if only to see the magic towels at the end of the meal!

The following day I was on way to Barcelona for a quick visit to Alimentaria 2012 in Barcelona. For the first time ever I missed my flight there due to traffic on the way to Heathrow, and my flight back was cancelled due to the General Strike in Spain, so all in all a bit of a shambles. However worth going for a couple of very productive meetings and a night turning into morning out in Barcelona. What a fabulous city, where the restaurants don’t open until 9-9.30 pm!

Coming back to the UK it is our end of year, and the unpleasant time of year when we need to decide which of our bad debts are unrecoverable and need to be written off. The largest one this year is a company trading as Plant and Harvest (JHL Holdings Ltd t/a) which went into administration just before Christmas.  Sadly it seems that the £3,500 we are owed is unrecoverable despite their still being a garden centre trading as Plant and Harvest at the same address!   Sadly this frustrating situation for us  is all too common, and we are trying to understand exactly what is going on in this situation.  The interesting thing in this case is that one of the directors of two limited companies trading as Plant & Harvest is Judith Price, who is none other than the wife of Mark Price, CEO of Waitrose. It seems the ethical trading policies of Waitrose didn’t make it through the family!  Message to Mr Price:  Can we have our money back please!

I am currently at #fooddrinkexpo where I can tell you that the summer sun has made it inside the NEC and everyone is in a great mood. It seems that what I have been saying recently about this year being a good one for the speciality food sector is confirmed by everyone here I am talking to. Great news. I was asked today to give an impromptu short talk about trends in food retail for the coming year. Having quickly gauged opinion from my sales team I came up with the following four areas that we think are at the top of the list at present. Do bear these in mind when you are at the show this week choosing new products:

1. Home cooking and baking.
Generally people are doing a lot more of this than they were 2-3 years ago. Despite my experience of the last week when I have twice been in packed restaurants people are eating out less and eating in more. Rising price of alcohol in pubs has indubitably been a factor in this. In cooking any products that make it easier for the amateur cook to make a good meal are doing well. In baking programmes like the Great British Bake-Off have increased cake making - so any products associated with this are doing really well.

2. Indulgence.
Products to treat ourselves have done phenomenally well. Little treats, chocolates, snacks - those little extras to make food more interesting - all these are selling through well, as forecast by me before the downturn started! It is known from previous recessions that customers cut down on buying large items and spend more on small price point lines during hard economic times - food fits the bill perfectly!

3. Special Diet-related products, especially gluten-free.
This category (and I include wheat-free) is growing exponentially. More and more people are on wheat or gluten-free diets, either by choice or necessity. It is the choosers that I believe will continue to shape the way this market grows in the future, and what directions it takes. Watch this space.

4. Foods that take us back in time!
Just like the products with the “Keep Calm and Carry on” poster depicted which is now becoming a bit of a cliché, but retro food is a big thing at present. Just think of the number of retro-sweet brands that have started up over the last year or so. Any food and drink that takes customers back to a bygone era in any shape or form seems to be doing well! Strange but true, but there is a wholeness and a certainty about these products that give comfort in destabilising times!

Anyway, better get back to the stand (no E154), customers queuing to see us!

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Click here for all Cotswold Fayre offers.

The trouble is at Cotswold Fayre we can never do things by halves. We now find ourselves organising a massive event in the summer on top of everything else we are doing relating to the business. Look out for the Cotswold Fayre “Summer Charity Ball”. Wholesalers turned event organisers! For those of you that don’t know let me explain how we arrived here!

The foundation of Cotswold Fayre is firmly connected to the charitable sector. I started the business whilst involved in voluntary charitable work in the heart of the inner city - Deptford, South-East London. Quite simply I ran out of money, and started selling speciality food from the Cotswolds to local shops in order to run my car and feed my kids! From there the business grew, moved to Reading and the rest is obvious really - I won’t bore you here! However, I was still keen in the early days not just to make money (although we didn’t do that in the early years), but also to have an emphasis on “giving something back”. So we took on 2-3 people in the early days who came from the local drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. At least one of these guys turned his life around which was very pleasing to see - this was after the initial hiccup of getting 6 speeding tickets in his first three weeks. I bundled them altogether in an envelope, wrote to the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police explaining his background and that we were trying to give him a fresh start, and never heard any more. Someone up at police HQ clearly believed in what we were doing and discretely deleted them off their records!!

In later years this emphasis of the business had reduced, so in 2010 I was looking for a new initiative that we could get behind as a company and put something back into the world community. Ideally I was looking for a food-related charity and one where we could not just give money but also get involved. I contacted several but whilst they were all keen to have money none of them were offering any opportunities for us to get our hands dirty. Then I remembered there was a group of people in the Cirencester area (where I live) that had been almost 100% supporting an orphanage in Kenya - the Bala Orphanage. I knew the trustees and, of course, they were more than happy for us to get involved in any way we could. Initially we started by supporting on a monthly basis a child for each member of staff at Cotswold Fayre - now 30+. Last year I went out there to look at what was required in terms of future development and volunteering opportunities and last year we also (with the help of our suppliers) raised the money for an irrigation project. We are planning on getting a team out there next year.

One member of our team, Holly, completely out of the blue decided that she wanted to do something for the orphanage, and so the idea for the Summer Ball was born. Holly just for a short time this year had cut her days down from 3 to 1 so she could spend some time with her daughter before she starts school, but I suspect she is working those extra two days on the ball. Invitations for tables and tickets are soon to be printed, and I look forward to several of you joining us to make a difference in Africa! More to follow soon!

Have a great week!

Another week, another country - only this time, it is only Scotland, which is currently in the UK - although if Alex Salmond has his way, not after 2014. To be honest I had more language difficulties in the restaurant this evening than I did in France last week. What an accent they have in Perth! On the long journey up here today, prompted by a couple of e-mails received along the way, I was cogitating about how important trust is in business. It really is at the foundation of all we do. Business is based on relationships, relationships are based on trust

As a wholesaler we are in a particularly vulnerable position unless trust abounds. We don’t have a brand, we don’t produce anything, we can be bypassed at any point. That is why, for us, partnership is such a key. We are, I believe, good at what we do i.e. selling and looking after retailers and ensuring they get the goods they order in a timely and efficient manner. How disappointing it is then, when our suppliers occasionally undermine us by offering special deals to retailers behind our backs. This is what I became aware of today! Not with one of a key partnership suppliers, but one whose products sell well for us. It won’t continue - either we will sort this out or they won’t be a supplier for long!!

At the whole core of our business is that we are offering our whole range to retailers at the same prices as if they would be buying direct. If there is not price parity there is no point to our existence. However, even at the same prices we are saving retailers £1000s per year. All the time spent ordering from countless producers, receiving in countless deliveries, paying countless invoices, organising countless tasting events and planning countless promotions is all done through one contact point - the wholesaler. The savvy retailers tell us we are saving them £1000s in wage bills by taking this administrative burden off them. The good news is that the downturn over the last couple of years has made some retailers analyse their costs a little more carefully and they have come to the conclusion that what we have been saying all along is right!

Even better news is that due to our partnership relationships with suppliers, then retailers are just as close to the people making the stuff as they were before - just without a lot of the administrative hassle! So it is even more amazing when we discover large independent retailers are still buying direct from producers, sometimes for tiny amounts of product. Occasionally it may make sense but often they either paying high prices via carriage charges or are being forced into huge stock-holdings, which isn’t great for cash-flow or shelf life.

Sorry that was all a bit heavy. Generally 2012 has been fab so far - so much more optimism than there was in 2011. The reception to our new product ranges has been fantastic as I am sure is the case with other suppliers - there is a lot more desire out there to refresh the retail offering. There really is a determination out there to take things forward this year from independent retailers - more boldness to increase stock and merchandise more fully. Don’t forget to ask suppliers for promotions even when they are not asking for them! We will be happy to oblige!

“If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest, delegation is what you need.” Actually it was dedication that the late Roy Castle used to sing about on Record Breakers - a memory from my childhood. Yes I really am that old. I have adapted the line because I actually believe that both dedication and delegation are both required. Most of those running their own businesses, whether retail or producers in my opinion have the dedication. Let’s face it we wouldn’t do the hours we do unless we were dedicated. But fewer of us are good at delegation!

Delegation is, however, essential if we are to grow our businesses. If every decision has to be either made or ratified by the business owners or directors it has two main effects 1) It stops the middle managers fulfilling their potential and taking ownership and 2) it makes the business owner/director go into burn-out. Both 1) and 2) stunt growth and increase frustration for all concerned. I remember in the early days of Cotswold Fayre taking a day off to go and watch England play test cricket - a less enjoyable experience than it is now as they were never winning at the time! I got a call from my general manager at the time to say that she had just sacked someone! I was chuffed to bits that she had made the decision without consulting me - although perhaps hadn’t followed the necessary HR protocol of the day! On an occasion even earlier than that I took what was a risk at the time and took three weeks holiday to travel around South-East Asia. When I came back a lot of the day-to-day tasks I had been doing at the time had been done just as well (if not better!) by those working for me! Having said that I don’t think I have taken three weeks off together since - maybe this is the year to do it.

If asked what has contributed to the success of Cotswold Fayre, I often mention delegation being a key, as I consider myself to be good at it - although my staff may call it “being dropped in it” - I hope not! However, I am by nature a perfectionist, as I am sure many others are as well. The danger with this is to think that you can always do the delegated jobs better than the delagat-ee! It is actually irrelevant whether this is indeed the truth, as the last thing to do is to pick up the job again. The ONLY way forward is to provide the training and insight required to do the job to the required level OR find someone else to do it.

Sorry is this blog is a little on the dry side without my normal wit and invention, but I strongly believe some of us are thinking too small. Delegate, think bigger and grow. There is never a better time to put expansion in place as at the bottom of downturn. So what’s stopping you! Now back to putting what I have just said into practice! I have averaged 1.75 days a week in the office this year so far, which means that the business is being run by my team and not me. That is not to say I am not working, I am - mainly at food events around Europe. The joy of high-speed internet everywhere these days means it doesn’t matter too much. Clearly there needs to be people management time - that also is essential to growth. I’ll be on my way back from France tomorrow to do just that!

Until next week….

I have been thinking this week about Company Culture. I am pleased with the atmosphere and commitment we have at Cotswold Fayre and it has always been my aim to create a culture that is fun to work in rather than simply to make money (and just as well as the latter hasn’t always happened!).

I started to read Richard Branson’s new book over Christmas “Screw Business as Usual” - normal gentle title from him. The main thrust is that those companies that do good and have fun will be the ones that make money. I have always believed in this. Cotswold Fayre was borne out of supporting my own charitable work in South-East London, employed ex-druggies and alkies in its early days and more recently has thoroughly engaged in supporting and working with the Bala Orphanage in Kenya. Whilst we work hard we also have a good laugh whilst we are doing it most of the time with the result that people like working here and our churn is very low. It works and as time goes on and we make more profit we will be more and more engaged in giving it away. I look forward to it!

With these thoughts in my mind I have been starting to invest in our future and are currently recruiting for two new sales people in the North of England. We have had a massive response with over 70 people applying so far and first interviews are happening this week. Whilst thinking that our culture and what we do are “the norm” it is shocking to discover that some companies are still in the dark ages. I interviewed one candidate this week from a food company that has won several accolades at the Great Taste Awards over the last 10 years that are still in the Victorian era when it comes to treating their staff. This candidate is desperate to get out as he has a company car that shouldn’t be on the road and has to take holiday when the car breaks down (which is frequently), doesn’t have any access to customer sales reports and isn’t given any information on company sales or profits. It’s the cloak and dagger culture that I have avoided like the plague.

Maybe this is normal - in which case we are very abnormal. I hope not! Let’s have open businesses, that treat their staff well, have fun, remember others and make more profit!

Have a good week.