Christmas has come early for food and drink suppliers after a fast-growing North Wales wholesaler reported a 1,100% increase in festive pre-orders
The good news was revealed by Harlech Foodservice as 40 staff and 28 producers gathered for its first Christmas Roadshow at the Ramada Plaza in Wrexham.
The firm is expecting its busiest Christmas yet with its new brochure featuring 420 yule tide products, including 78 new lines destined for festive menus in restaurants, pubs, schools and hospitals across Wales, the North West of England, Shropshire and the Midlands.
The suppliers took part in speed dating style sessions where the Harlech staff, all wearing Christmas jumpers, Santa hats and reindeer costumes, were given just eight minutes to taste their products and chat about their festive offers.
Harlech Foodservice’s commercial manager Chris Gregson said the roadshow and the launch of the brochure were key elements of the firm’s preparations for the festive season, which was a crucial time for the food and drink sector.
Chris said: “All the suppliers here feature in our Christmas brochure and we have colleagues from Harlech’s sales, supply chain, commercial and marketing teams attending to taste, feel and ask questions about the suppliers’ products.
“The Christmas Roadshow is all about our suppliers educating and energising our sales team so they can go out there and confidently inform and sell to our customers from our Christmas brochure.
“We’re very grateful to all the suppliers for attending the Christmas Roadshow and highlighting the products we are selling in the brochure and informing and educating our staff so well, they’ve been brilliant.
“The speed dating theme worked really well and the beauty of it is that our suppliers get to see every member of the Harlech team whether they are in sales, marketing, commercial or the supply chain.
“It presents a great networking opportunity.
“It is the first time we have done something like this, and it has been a tremendous success.
“It’s quite simple really – how can you sell something if you haven’t tried it yourself, or you don’t know what it is, or how you cook it?”
Chris added a Christmas brochure deal where customers are given a free bottle of Prosecco if they make a pre-order of £250 had been a huge hit.
He said: “Our pre-orders year-on-year are up somewhere in the region of 1.100 per cent.
“We launched the brochure two weeks ago and in the first two weeks our pre-orders have gone through the roof.
“As a family-run company based in Wales we are delighted to continue to support Welsh produce.”
Harlech managing director Mark Lawton added: “I am a great believer that if you’re going to sell something, you need to know all its features and benefits, and you cannot see that from a photograph.
“When you are sitting down with a customer you need to explain what the product is, you need to explain how it fits their menu, the portion sizes, the margins they can make selling that product.
“Christmas is huge for the food and drink sector and a key trading time for us when you think about the breadth of Christmas parties, events and celebrations that take place.
“Ultimately the Christmas Roadshow and the brochure is about helping our customers have a successful Christmas.”
The early festive fun comes as Harlech, which has bases in Cricieth, Chester, Carmarthen, Aberbargoed and Telford, eyes further growth and is on course to achieve record sales of £75 million following a rapid expansion across Wales and England.
Among the suppliers taken part in the Christmas Roadshow was Snowdonia Cheese which has a production site in Rhyl and offices in Deeside.
National account manager Olivia Gratwick said the company had been supplying Harlech Foodservice for over 10 years and said the Christmas Roadshow was a great way to get to know the Harlech staff.
She said: “The event is lovely, I think it is a really brilliant idea.
“It gives me a chance to explain to the Harlech team more about the cheese we have, tell them exactly what the ingredients are and talk about the flavour profile, and have a look to see which ones pair up nicely for a cheeseboard or for any occasion.
“Christmas is so important for us, it is where the majority of our business occurs and probably 60 to 70 per cent of our business is done over the Christmas period because people want cheeseboards, people want to do gifting with our cheese.”
“Our newest cheese is the Purple Vale which we have just launched with Harlech and that’s a mature cheddar with balsamic caramelised onion.”
Caernarfon-based Ready Foods, which specialises in slow cooked chicken, pork and turkey dishes and employs about 100 staff, attended the festive event.
Bill Currie, business development manager, said: “We have six lines listed with Harlech, all of which can be used as a great special option, roast option or dinner option, slow and low cooked.
“In the products we are showing today, the gammon shank for example is cooked for four and a half or five hours at low temperature, the barbecue pork ribs are cooked for about two or three hours.
“And we have two pork belly products today which have been cooked for eight hours, which are super succulent and has a delicious finish.
“We have been with Harlech for two years now and it is going well.
“We are expanding all the time, growing all the time and we are celebrating our 20th year as a company this year.
“The concept of the Christmas Roadshow is fantastic.
“The speed dating way of doing things is the quickest and cleanest and easiest way of us getting our products in front of a lot of the key people at Harlech.
“It is always good to meet other suppliers too, and see what they are doing, what innovation and ideas they have.”
