It was, however, a culinary adventure as well.  The thought of curry for two weeks before I went away filled me with glee, but it got to the point where even after a shower the curry smell seemed to be coming out of every pore of my body, so I made some adjustments to the diet.  The inevitable Delhi-belly did, of course, help in this direction!  As I am sure many of you know, most curries over there are vegetarian, and I was pining for some decent meat after a while as well.  The cheapest meal (with a soft drink and seconds and thirds) came to a total of 60p each, which was a little extreme, but generally food was very cheap–and on the whole–absolutely delicious!

Apart from the very obvious poverty in what is now the fastest growing economy in the world, the main thing that strikes you about India is the extreme busy-ness and frenetic pace of everything combined with the noise and the smells.  Many people are, in effect, working for themselves and have a high motivation and determination to do well.  This makes life for a westerner tiring, as you are continuously the target of their sales efforts, whether they be the chai-wallahs on the train, the rickshaw drivers or the innumerable saree-shop owners.  I didn’t even think I would suit a saree!

During the flight On the plane on the way home, my thoughts turned to the Speciality and Fine Food Fair this weekend – the main annual jamboree for our industry.  I began to picture Olympia as an Indian Bazaar.  Slightly bizarre, I know, but I began to compare the determination in India to that of exhibitors at Olympia. How much more would we sell if we knew our next meal depended on it?  I wonder sometimes whether half the people exhibiting at these shows actually want to be there.  Some of them look so disinterested and bored they may as well go home.  Come on, we have some great businesses in this sector and some fantastic products – let’s sell them with enthusiasm.  I would rather my sales team be accused of being slightly pushy sometimes than disinterested any day!

Have a good show!

I have never held back on going away on holiday, despite the pressures not to!  I remember in the early days of the business, there was always some travesty or other as soon as I left the country, whether this was a van involved in an accident or a member of staff resigning.  It almost became a joke; what was going to happen this time?  Fortunately now there are enough capable members of staff to deal with most crises.  And this year we seem to be getting through them before I go away next week.  Only two days ago an agency driver filled up one of our new 3.2 litre diesel vans with petrol!

There are three very good reasons as company owners to ensure that you take enough holiday.  And I mean going away on holiday, not staying at home and checking your e-mails every 30 minutes.

1)  As human beings we need rest and recovery in order to be effective when we are working.  The judeo-christian society is based on a culture that had around 10 weeks holiday per year - and a year off in every seven.  We will struggle to reach these levels, but it is something to aspire to!

2)  Often it is by getting away from our businesses that enables us to get perspective, vision and ideas that are more difficult to get when we are in the middle of things.  Also being in other cultures and seeing businesses and products there sometimes gives us great ideas for when we come home.

3)  Finally, and possibly most importantly, our going away on holiday often ensures other managers and members of staff need to take responsibility for parts of the business that they don’t normally.  I have seen tremendous growth in individuals when they are forced to have to challenge themselves and push into new ground when I or other managers have been out of the business.  This enables room for possible promotion for these people in the future.

So, if you are going away on holiday this summer, enjoy your time away.  And if not, why not?!

To give good service generally means some degree of human interaction. Although there are, of course, some excellent web-sites that give a very good customer experience, what I am talking about is, of course, physically going into a shop.  Face to face contact is required for good service.  What an own goal then when supermarkets started installing self-service checkouts a couple of years ago.  Not only does this remove the last vestige of human contact within the supermarket at the check-out, but the technology doesn’t even work properly!  All I hear when I have used them is a computer voice saying “approval required”.  Why I should need approval for checking out a bottle of olive oil or chunk of cheese is beyond me!  And yet I can’t continue checking out without a supervisor coming over. And they are too busy dealing with another customer over 60 who can’t check-out a bottle of wine and a 16 year-old who can’t buy a tube of glue to complete his homework! And have you ever tried using your own recyclable bags?  The only thing that amazes me is that more of these machines haven’t been smashed in by frustrated customers!

Of course, all this frustration with bad technology results in an even worse customer experience in the supermarkets - if that was possible!  All this plays into the hands of the independents who can give that excellent service that customers are crying out for.  In fact when customers receive any kind of decent customer service, they almost fall over backwards as they aren’t used to it.  Let’s go over the top in smiling when customers come through the door, helping them find products, recommending products and carrying their shopping to the car.  All this makes a huge difference!  Don’t forget it!

One little story to finish, which is where good service goes a bit too far and turns into pushiness. I stop at a BP garage which is attached to an M & S a couple of times a week on the way to work, sometimes to fill up with diesel and other times simply to buy some breakfast, which is usually a croissant or two.  Every time I go to the check-out I get asked whether I would like a hot coffee to go with my croissants.  As my office is only 10 minutes away and I can get much better coffee there, I decline.  Bearing in mind the staff should know me by now and should stop asking, this week I was asked three times whilst paying whether I wanted a coffee, which was ridiculous - it was almost like he wasn’t going to let me buy the croissants unless I bought a coffee to go with them!  Next time I will try and sell him some coffee to improve the quality of their offering.

I think all the judging is complete and the Gold Award winners will be announced over the summer with the grand awards ceremony at Fortnum & Mason’s on 6th September.  I say “I think” the judging is complete as I wasn’t invited to judge this year.  I believe I upset the Guild of Fine Food Retailers last year by using my calculator to calculate the revenue from the entries, and making a note that the judges weren’t paid their expenses! So, persona non grata, this despite spending money advertising with them.

Anyway, I was interested to hear in the introduction of this month’s “Fine Food Digest” that Bob Farrand feels that he has got egg on his face this year, because some of the supermarket own label products have won 2 and 3 star gold awards, making them the best in class within certain categories.

No doubt we will hear details of which products soon, but interesting that Mr Farrand has chosen to spill the beans before the awards are officially announced, presumably to damper down the media coverage nearer the time.  I am sure the judged for the Regional and National Awards announced on 6th September will be aware of which products are supermarket own label!   How embarrassing would that be, otherwise!

Well, it is only embarrassing if we continually stress that all supermarket food is rubbish.  It clearly isn’t.  There are some very good products in the supermarkets - and also some very bad ones.  The reason many people choose not to do all their shopping in the supermarket is generally for other reasons as well as quality: ambiance, food miles, quality of service, provenance, being able to taste products before they buy, etc, etc.   No-one should be embarrassed that supermarket own label products have won Great Taste Awards - if only by the law of averages some products out of 20,000 skus would be best in class.  The offering of the independent retailers offering a large range of products not available in the supermarkets and made by people who care about good food and pass that information and knowledge onto their consumers is always going to trump anything the supermarkets offer.  Also the knowledge that the supermarkets in all likelihood have screwed their suppliers down to the bare bones, so they have less margin to make good food products in the future should be enough to put many of us off supporting them.

Despite the downturn in the weather, have a good week.

It is always at the hottest time of year that my team are focusing on Christmas more than any other time of year. The sales team are out getting orders (100% up on last year so far), which shows a certain degree of optimism about the economic conditions! The purchasing team is busy liaising with suppliers regarding initial orders and negotiating on some extra warehouse space, hopefully without losing focus on the present. I must put in a confession at this point of my frustration with some customers who refuse to place Christmas orders until September well after our deadline for ordering from many suppliers and then complain that they can’t order what they want!

Our Christmas catalogue was printed in April, why wait 6 months before ordering, we are not asking for any money up front, just an order, what is wrong with getting organized, especially when it helps us give you good service?

Talking of heat, what we experience here is nothing compared to New York. I am just back from the Big Apple, where it was touching 100 degrees, even hot for them - and they had cooling rooms set up for those residents without air-con to go and cool down. As well as taking my son to experience the delights of that happening city, I was attending the Fancy Food Show - the first one I have been to in New York. A great event and crammed full of interesting artisan food products. Speciality Food is very much alive and kicking over there - in fact I get the impression that there is far less dominance by one of two supermarkets, which allows the independent sector to be a larger noise than in the UK. If only we could get back to that here! But let’s face it, Tescos et al are here to stay, but I really do feel despite their ever-increasing profits the speciality food sector is very buoyant at present - let’s keep pushing on in the face of competition.

The biggest impact for food businesses would be the increase in VAT to 20%, but at least this doesn’t kick in until 2011 – and allows us a free run up to Christmas 2010.  Talking of which our advance sales of Christmas orders are well up on the last year – and more indicatively the average order is up on last year.  This implies a continued sense of optimism in Speciality Food growth over the next few months – and may it continue long after that!  Helped most recently by some splendid weather, growth in garden centres and farm shops remains stronger than ever – and I really believe good, comprehensive food offerings in this sector will start to eat away at the dominance of the supermarkets in some regions.

It seems to be the “in-thing” to slate customer loyalty schemes in the independents recently with yet another article appearing in the latest Fine Food Digest issue.  Operated correctly, I still believe this can be used effectively to drive increased business from existing customers and, perhaps more importantly, the get new customers through the door.  I am working with a farm shop in Oxfordshire that is currently implementing a scheme to do just that.  Having a large e-mail database of customers will help them as they offer incentives to those customers to pass on a voucher to those who aren’t current customers. I will let you know how it goes.

I remember being challenged in the same way when visiting China last year.  Many of us, including me, run our businesses within our comfort zones, which is fine, but if we really want to hit the heights then we probably need to take more risks.  Theo would say he is not a risk taker, because he has weighed up the pros and cons before he makes any business decision, so goes into the danger zone pretty much knowing that he will come out winning.  But in our eyes, he is a risk-taker, well beyond any of us normal mortals!  Maybe it is not for all of us to live on the edge, but I challenge you as I am challenging myself to take more calculated risks and think bigger.

So far in 2010, I have deliberated increased the wage bill of Cotswold Fayre by around 35% in anticipation of growth of that magnitude this year.  We are only at the beginning of Month 3, so it is still early days, but the very fact that the turnover has to be considerably more just to pay the wages certainly drives me forward into focusing more on our sales and marketing.  In a retail situation, this is similar to something called “pressure of stock”, which is deliberately getting a load of a particular product in, and by the very fact that there is a big pile to shift, focuses us and our staff to sell it hard.  Now clearly this is only to be recommended with certain products, but the buzz that can come from visibly selling a mountain of stock creates a knock-on effect on the whole business.  Why don’t you try it?  And I am sure most suppliers will help you with a discount in order to sell it out with some kind of promotion.

Finally, we seem to be entering the awards season.  My company is up for two awards within the next two weeks, The Grocer Gold Awards and the Oxfordshire Business Awards.  Of course I am hopng we win, but even if we don’t the publicity received will be worth a night out.  I will let you know.  I am having a reward today from our largest supplier and being taken to Queen’s to enjoy the tennis – nothing wrong with a bit of networking on a Monday!

I am getting mixed reports from the sector at present. Some our my sales team are reporting that there is more caution around than they have seen so far this year, but on the counter-side our first few Christmas orders are considerably larger than last year’s early orders. One farm shop in Surrey that has been reporting negative growth for 18 months has just started to see a slight uplift in sales – and that in what has been a miserable month for weather so far in May. (Better weather promised for the second half of May, apparently.) Cotswold Fayre has had a record April and the best ever take-up of our promotions.

Despite the down-turn of sterling against the dollar, it does feel at present, as if there is a little more stability to the British economy with a new coalition government at the helm, but how long this honeymoon period will last is anyone’s guess. However, let’s make the most of the slight wave of optimism in the air – and before VAT goes up to 20%, which it most certainly will!

One thing not in question though is that hard work in the right direction will enable all of us to grow our businesses over the next few months. I have worked with a couple of other businesses of late and am amazed at the complacency there is in small food businesses sometimes. It only needs someone to take their foot off the gas for a short business and turnover tails away and soon the company can be in trouble. There is a constant need for all of us to be driving things forward the whole time. This doesn’t mean running around like a headless chicken, but strategizing and putting the right systems and people in place to get the job done more effectively and profitably.

Due to the recruitment of five extra staff since the beginning of 2010, my own staff’s wage bill is now more than 33% larger than it was last year. And there is nothing like knowing that we as a company have to turn-over per month over £200k just to pay the wages – and that doesn’t include any other costs or me! Certainly helps focus the mind on the job at hand!

I think we have talked about the World Cup before.  Hopefully this year will be different, but the only two other world cup month’s that I have been running business for have been absolute shockers with their being a dramatic reduction in shoppers coming through the door.  It is time to think of ways of selling more to the customers coming in during the world cup.  Fortunately this year most of England’s matches will be in the evening, so hopefully won’t affect sales too much.  This makes them a perfect BBQ occasion, so hopefully with some warmer weather, it will actually be an opportunity to sell more meat, marinades, soft drinks, crisps, other snacks and beer.  There are also a number of football products available, mainly aimed at kids; football lollies, biscuits, gingerbread and chocolate etc… worth stocking up on these, as they will sell after the World Cup anyway.

Whatever the result of the election this week, I am very positive that we are due for a good summer in speciality food retailing.  I have had various meetings with suppliers across the sectors in the last few weeks and almost all are experiencing an uplift in sales compared to last year.  So ensure that your shops look busy and full of stock – success breeds success. Have a good week.

Personally, I don’t always go for the same choice– I have voted for four different parties over the last four elections for different reasons every time.  Many of us may live in areas where it may have seemed in the past that our vote counted for little as our constituencies were set blue or red or even yellow. This time however, it seems that things could be different with there being far more marginal constituencies than before due to the emergence of the Liberal Democrats.

What are the things to consider when casting our vote this time within the food and drink industry?

Government Funding - Well, the first major issue for food producers over the last couple of years has been the withdrawal of funding for both domestic and international markets.  The Food and Drink industry is remarkably under-resourced when compared to other sectors, and I haven’t heard any politician say that their party is committed to resourcing the industry again, so this issue may be one that you may want to ask your local candidates about.

Distribution Costs - These are rising massively again and are up to the peak levels last seen in 2008.  I don’t think any party is going to reduce fuel duty, but rather than this money sinking into propping up the national debt it would be good to see some of it used to resource a future away from fossil fuels so we can still enjoy the variety of food we do now in 20,50 and 100 years time.  There is a sad lack of initiative from any of the major parties on this issue.

National Insurance Increase - The Tories have been making a big play on this so-called “tax on jobs”, and this is probably an issue that some of us feel strongly about.  And actually it is a 9% increase in NI, not a 1% increase, and 18% if you both employ people and are employed (like me!).  However, the economy is in a mess, and the money has to come from somewhere, but penalising SMEs which are the heart-beat of a thriving economy may not be the brightest move.

VAT Increase - No party has got much to say on this, but I think it is fairly clear that any new government would increase this to 20% in the not too distant future.  This will instantly out-date our Christmas catalogue which is going to the printers this week.  More seriously they may increase VAT from zero to either 17.5% or 20% on food items that currently have no VAT, which would have a much more serious impact on our industry.

Trident - I thought I would leave the most controversial issue to last, and this is one I will express my opinion on.  How can spending huge amounts of money on weapons that we will never use be a sensible thing to do with the economy in the state it is in at present.  With this money alone a significant proportion of our debt could be wiped out, and small business also resourced.  This is the issue that has caused thousands of younger voters to swing towards the Liberal Democrats.  Perhaps the other two parties should listen to that call?

Have a profitable week!