Speciality-Food-Magazine-JanuaryFebruary2025

8 @specialityfood Y ou had passion, you set out with a plan and made it happen. You should be feeling so proud. However, instead of the joy of retail, your day is a stream of monotonous tasks, your working day is fifteen hours and there are seven of them in a week. It dawns on you: What am I doing? Should I be doing something else with my life? Many people lose passion for their work. If you don’t love your work, it’s going to make it much more difficult to pour your heart into your business. As humans we have ups and downs. If you work for an organisation, you probably have some sort of direction. As a food shop owner, this comes from you. I am sure that when you gave the project thought, you knew it wouldn’t all be just fun, but you wanted to do it, make yours the best, serve great food to satisfied customers. Before you try to fix any problem, you need to understand the cause. Setbacks and failure can be demoralising. If you aren’t accomplishing your goals, this can make you feel detached from your business. When I opened my first café and deli it was driven by my desire to serve great food and make people happy. It didn’t take long to realise that the team I had put together did not all share my passion. At its worst I came to expect nothing and anything above that was a bonus. Remember what fun it was to EDWARD BERRY THE FLYING FORK “Regaining the passion” think of what you wanted to accomplish and the excitement you felt before launching. Being your own boss gave you the freedom to do things your way and implement your own plans. You got to do what you’re interested in. You liked the idea of being creative. When you considered going it alone, you thought how you would do things your way. Owning your own business gives you the freedom to express yourself and develop your ideas in any way you choose. Yes, it took effort, but after you had planned the business, your ideas involved variety. If you were uninspired by a monotonous job, starting your own business stretched your abilities to the maximum. If you wanted a career where every day is different, then you found it. You’ve been doing things the same way from the start, so think about how you can introduce innovation and push your business in new directions. One of the biggest reasons people lose passion is not because they have lost interest in their work; it’s because they’re overworked, and their lives lack balance. It’s good to find a way to put aside work for a few minutes every day or a few hours every week. When you start losing that warm feeling for your work, you may start pulling away from the people around you. Relationships should be what will help you feel energised and people who know us can help remind us of our purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a reason to reignite the passion, and often that reason is that we had blinkers on which stopped us from seeing clearly. Take the blinkers off and reignite your passion for your business. Cress Co supports food bank with reverse advent calendar The fine food distributor counted down to Christmas 2024 with a new initiative in support of Dunfermline Foodbank. The project ran in partnership with Adamsons Drinks, with an advent calendar from both businesses each day revealing which product from their ranges would be donated to the foodbank. By Christmas Eve, 48 cases of essential and festive foods had been delivered. Each member of the team was involved, with a name being randomly selected each day and that person, logistics allowing, finding the case in the warehouse and putting it on a pallet for the foodbank. Joe Wall, managing director at Cress Co, said, "We support Dunfermline Foodbank year-round, but Christmas is a particularly Data released by Clear Channel UK has shown British consumers are placing greater value than ever on the sustainability claims of food and drink Key findings included: • 17% of people check labels for sustainability certifications important time to help. It can be difficult for families to put special meals on the table, and we were happy to launch a fun, meaningful initiative that gave back to the community while involving our • One in five plan to prioritise sustainable brands for future purchases • 23% rate brands that practice sustainable approaches • 14% claim they are more likely to purchase a sustainable product after repeated exposure to its advertising. whole team.” The Cress Co Spring Summer 2025 Ambient Catalogue will be available at the beginning of January in hardcopy and online thecressco.co.uk • 44% worry about the future of the planet • 25% are doing everything they can to minimise their carbon footprint • 1% of 18 to 34-year-olds claimed they would be willing to pay more than 80% towards a sustainable product New statistics reveal the demand for sustainable products is higher than ever