Retailer viewpoints
Abdul Arain, Al Amin Store, Cambridge
“We find the most challenging part of spring is the weather. Sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s cold, and so it’s very difficult to know what will sell well. I’d like to see wholesalers making more use of promotions and price-marked packs around”
Shaid Hussain, Good News, Buton-on-Trent
“Our most popular products around Easter are from the Cadbury’s Dairy Milk range. Our biggest challenge is the supermarkets being able to offer cheaper. Sometimes, even I find it cheaper to go to Tesco – it’s a real problem. Wholesalers can help by keeping their prices competitive.”
Bal Singh, Nisa Local, Birmingham
“Our biggest challenge around Easter is to avoid being blown out by the multiples. Wholesalers are great at keeping us informed, but having to order six months in advance is really challenging. If there were a way to reduce that time, then that would be a huge.”
Christine Hope, Hopes of Longtown, Herefordshire
“If you buy 12 of something, the profit is in the last one or two so we don’t overstock at Easter. We know we cannot win on being the cheapest so we go for quality, because you can get cheaper chocolate but it is not very nice.”
Peter Lamb, Lambs of Larder, Frant, East Sussex
“We don’t do Christmas, we don’t do Easter, we don’t do holidays. The only thing we do differently is that at Christmas, we wear ‘Bah Humbug’ hats. We tried doing seasonal displays at first but ended up with a lot of leftover products that we then had to sell cheaply.”
