With Christmas products now starting to appear on shelves, it’s time to reveal what products proved popular with buyers this year, and so what you’ll see in Speciality stores across the UK this Christmas!
Tiptree, a brand which needs no introduction, will have a presence on many retailers’ shelves this Christmas. Tiptree Mincemeat, a must have for Tiptree stockists over the Christmas period, has been the 4thmost popular Christmas line out of the 1,500 lines we stock for Christmas. Other lines in the top 20 Christmas sellers from Tiptree are their 454g Cello Wrapped Christmas Pudding, Christmas Conserve, Brandy Butter and the Four Miniature Preserves Gift Box. The Tiptree Gin Liqueurs are still our best-selling alcohol product, a great product to have in your instore Christmas tasting evenings!
Other products which hold their position in the top 20 from last Christmas, are the Lovemore Gluten Free Mince Pies, Opies Pickled Walnuts, Belvoir Mulled Winter Punch, New Berry Fruits Jewels, Sunvale Jelly Slices and Mrs Darlington’s Mincemeat with Brandy! The Farmhouse Biscuits range holds top spot for the tinned biscuit category, with its ’12 Days Of Christmas’ Tin selling the most to earn its space in the top 20!
As ever, it’s likely that you’ll find a Border Biscuit or two in most households this Christmas, with the Chocolate Gingers Hex Boxes being the best seller of their range (just outside the top 20 of our 1,500 products) closely followed by the rest of their Biscuit gift packs!
A new entry to the Top 20 is the Castello ‘Heart’ Prosecco, proving that the British Prosecco addiction is still going strong! The Gluhwein, another new addition for this year, certainly lived up to expectations, with over 2600 bottles leaving our warehouse, I’m sure you’ll come across one in your travels during the Christmas period, or perhaps one of the Display units which proved popular amongst our larger Garden Centre buyers! The beautiful blue bottle of Winter-Secco (a festive Prosecco with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg), also won over many buyers, with over 1000 bottles now distributed among our customers ready to get the Christmas parties started!
Popaball’s bursting bubbles have taken the market by storm! Their flavoured bursting bubbles and shimmers are perfect for the festive period with the gallons of Prosecco and Cocktails that are likely to be consumed! The most popular line this Christmas is the Rose Gold Shimmer (edible glitter in a small glass keepsake jar- what more could you want?!), with the bubbles for Prosecco and the Passion Fruit Bursting Bubbles following closely behind! Their gift packs were also favoured by many, a great gift for Christmas but also any time of the year – the Popaball range is now available All Year Round!
Dreimeister, a new brand for 2018, proved very popular with its best-selling line, the “Chocolate for Wine” 12 Coin Wooden Box” finishing as our 16th best-selling product – evidence of the increasing popularity of food pairing products! In fact – all of its Chocolate Pairing Boxes sold well within the top 30% of Christmas products – something to add to Christmas range next year if you missed out this year! “The Dreimeister Stollen cakes also proved popular – as expected being such a popular festive tradition!
Rendles, a brand exclusive to Springvale, always sells well for Christmas! Their moreish Cheesy Bites which come in various shapes are very popular for Christmas party hosts and Christmas Hampers, with some buyers ordering over 200 cases to meet their customer base demand! The Cheese Trees and Cheese Starts are the most popular Rendles lines at Christmas, each ranking well within the Top 10 Best Selling Christmas lines!
The packaging of Petite & Sweet, a local brand set up by a mother and daughter’s chance encounter with a chocolate making course, won the hearts of many buyers, and it’s safe to say the chocolate inside tastes as good as the bars look! Their ‘Taste Of Christmas Bar’ was the favourite with its unique festive flavours of Cranberry, Sultana, Almond & Marzipan. The unique ‘Chocolate Making Kits’ also proved popular, with ‘Festive Friends’ version being chosen by buyers from all sorts of retailer types!
Another newly added confectionery brand whose classy packaging and delicious flavours attracted many is The Fudge Kitchen. As expected, the best seller from their Christmas range is the ‘12 Flavours Of Christmas’ Box with 12 quirky flavours including Stollen, Speculoos and Christmas Pudding Fudge! Their Drinking Fudge Gift Sets followed close behind along with their award-winning Sea Salted Caramel and Gin Fudge (both flavours are available All Year Round).
As ever, Panettone’s of some sort make their way onto most Christmas orders! Following Galup’s launch of exciting new lines for this Christmas, their ‘Colour’, ‘Christmas’ and ‘Vintage Chocolate’ Panettone’s proved most popular. Amaretti Virginia also boasted an impressive display of new lines for 2018, with their beautiful Frosty Green branded range toping their sales. The Panettone Display which returned from last year’s brochure topped its 2017 sales by miles.
The Sweet Potato Spirits Company have gone from strength to strength this year, with over 5,500 of their eye-catching wax topped bottles leaving our warehouse. From their delicious array of flavours, the Marshmallow Moonshine proved the most popular flavour, closely followed by Toffee Apple Moonshine and Raspberry Gin. Of the three Gift Packs, the ‘Gin Collection’ was the most popular with buyers this Christmas – however this could change since these products are available All Year Round so it’s not too late to order this in time for the festive shopping period!
Lottie Shaw’s, the Yorkshire based bakery renowned for her delicious treats proved as popular as ever, with over 3000 Gin Mince Pies having left our warehouse ready to be demolished by hungry shoppers! With buyers taking note of the unrelenting popularity of Gin, the runner up from the Lottie Shaw Christmas range is her Sloe Gin Fruit Cake. Following closely behind are her Deep Rum Filled Mince Pies, and her Gingerbread Reindeers!
A brand with a real point of difference and a sentimental background story is The Bottled Baking Co. A brand which made its way into the brochure mainly because our marketing team couldn’t help but fall in love with the cute bottles – but wow it has been really popular, so popular in fact that we now have it featuring in our Easter brochure which will be delivered to customers mid-October!
Another range which proves that packaging is everything is The Lakes Distillery– whose Baubles filled with Gin, Vodka and Whisky, caught the eye of most! The large Baubles were the most popular, with Gin being the favoured drink (over 400 Gin Baubles to be exact!) followed by Vodka then Whisky. Their Rhubarb & Rosehip and Elderflower Gins, again in an eye-catching matte pink/green bottles made their way onto many orders too, proving the most popular of their range of 7 flavoured Spirits.
Some of our customers have already sold out their Christmas stock – so don’t be afraid to contact us to place a top-up order. We will do everything we can to accommodate your requests and work with our suppliers to deliver the stock to you as soon as possible!