Speciality-Food-July/August 2025

27 specialityfoodmagazine.com come the festive season, comfort is favoured says Harriet. “Flavour preferences during the festive season lean towards rich, warming, and indulgent. Consumers are drawn to comforting spices, zesty citrus, and creamy, buttery textures.” Don’t feel that you have to stick to the conventional Christmas bakes – Christmas cake, mince pies et al – to satisfy this appetite. “Our Stem Ginger & Lemon Biscuits offer a vibrant twist – combining the gentle heat of ginger with the brightness of lemon for a refreshing yet festive flavour. Meanwhile, our Clotted CreamChocolate Chip Shortbread Biscuits deliver a luxurious, melt- in-the-mouth experience, blending traditional shortbread with the richness of clotted cream and indulgent chocolate chips,” she says. ‘Tis the season of gifting, and food and drink products that come ready to be gifted are a boon to the retailer and customer alike. “Our tins experience a notable uplift in sales during the festive season, and gifting is a key reason,” explains Harriet. “The tins are designed to be ideal for giving, sharing, or simply enjoying at home. Their festive designs make them a standout on shelves and a popular choice for those looking for a thoughtful, ready-to-give present. Many customers also appreciate the keepsake value of the tins, which often find a second life in the home.” An appetite for the familiar Product visuals and ‘creating a scene’ are well worth investing in, says Emma Cyrus of WBC. “If you think that 72% of consumers say that their purchasing decisions revolve around packaging, it’s easy to see why it should be considered a sales asset. In fact, it’s your key to building brand awareness, communicating your core values and creating that all- important buy-in. Which, ultimately, is what good retail marketing is all about.” Cementing how you want to represent your business and ensuring that this image resonates throughout the customer experience is key. “Whatever resonates will trigger an emotional response which, in turn, creates a link with your brand image that forms the foundation of recognition and loyalty,” says Emma. “Add festive vibes to the mix, and you have yourself a dynamite way of standing head and shoulders above the (very stiff) competition.” Keeping things familiarly seasonal – reds, greens and metallics – is still a winner. “Seasonal branding takes this up another notch giving you, the retailer, a chance to hone into trends around societal behaviour and ramp up your proposition to reflect current needs,” she continues. “The festive season is all about tradition and nostalgia, and with an astounding Christmas spend of £28.6 billion in 2024, who wouldn’t want to go with the flow?” Tradition certainly sells at Craigie’s Farm Shop, and seasonal shortcuts created on-site are a key driver. “In June the team starts discussing what we want to build on from last year and what we want to do differently in terms of dishes, and then we start looking into shelf lives as it rolls around quickly,” says founder John Sinclair. The aim of the game is to save customers’ time during the busy festive period, so on the list of dishes prepared are things like roast potatoes, red cabbage, and sprouts with cranberries and walnuts. Mince pies and Christmas puddings made to John’s Granny’s recipe – “it contains a lot of booze, so shelf life isn’t such a worry!” – are must-haves, but the teamhas noticed a fall in the popularity of traditional cakes and puds and work hard to provide desserts that cater to customers’ evolving sweet tooths. “We sell a lot of festive cheesecakes and chocolate logs,” says John, “nothing too substantial as you don’t want anything heavy after you’ve eaten half a turkey.” WALKER’S SHORTBREAD SELECTION Proudly crafted in the Scottish Highlands using only the finest all-butter ingredients – no artificial flavourings, colourings or additives. walkersshortbread.com TIPTREE MERRY CHRISTMAS Pieces of Tiptree Christmas pudding are infused in small batch English craft rum for a moreish flavour. tiptree.com BILLINGTON’S GINGERBREAD Made using one of the UK’s oldest gingerbread recipes, featuring a secret blend of spices, rum and golden syrup. billingtonsgingerbread.co.uk STAG BAKERIES SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR CHEESE A rich and tasty cake which pairs beautifully with a cheese board. stagbakeries.co.uk STOCK CHECK Wastage in the New Year is a common occurrence in food businesses, but Craigie’s has a smart solution. “We tend not to buy inmuch overtly Christmassy stock, instead we bring in lines that we can sell throughout the year but put in a hamper with a festive decoration to Christmas-ify it, or display it alongside our ownmince pies or cranberry sauce – there are enough things to make the shop feel Christmassy without bringing in lots of reindeers and the like.” The restaurant is also a handy outlet for spare stock. “Any surplus meat products go onto our menu,” explains John. “If we ordered in too many chipolatas for pigs in blankets, for example, they go into our breakfasts. We always have spare turkeys in the New Year as we don’t want to be out of stock if a customer comes in looking for one last minute and we’ve sold out, but our turkey and cranberry pies sell well into February.” Un-iced Christmas cakes get a second outing as Easter cakes later in the year if they remain unsold by the New Year. DISTRIBUTOR INSIGHT Now in its 17th year, the team at Bramble Foods is preparing for a bumper Christmas. “We’re growing year-on-year, but Christmas is growing bigger than anything else we do,” say Mark Hilton and Tom Bradshaw, creative manager and operations manager. They put this growth down to the size of its gifting range; hampers, bagged items and boxed cakes are flying off the distributor’s shelves, and its 1,300 lines of festive fare – potentially the largest selection in the sector – are selling better than ever. Pulling together as a team – and industry – is especially important at Christmas, and everyone in the Bramble Foods team chips in when it comes to packing products in the warehouse. This comradery is demonstrated beyond the business’s HQ too, with a proactive sales team building tailored and invaluable relationships with retailers that benefit all parties – and the on-site tastings service is proving popular with customers, too. Face-to-face interactions and a reliable operations service are key to a smooth-running festive season for all, say Mark and Tom, and Bramble Foods is proud to offer that and more to a growing customer base. We’re growing year-on-year, but Christmas is growing bigger than anything else we do