Settling In

Posted on: 8th September 2021

Posted in: Company News

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We’re a few months into the hamper business now which brings about a phase of the business that when we first started, we really aimed towards.

The day to day running of the business is almost on “autopilot”. We’re comfortable with the processes that are in place for ordering, collecting orders, distribution etc that it doesn’t require a huge amount of work to make the business tick over. I remember many conversations between myself and Jess when we were wading through all the red tape required to get going where we’d end it with “I just can’t wait until we’re up and running so the process side can largely take care of itself”. I think we’re near enough there on that front. This has allowed us to dedicate more time to marketing, getting our name out there, while also developing the corporate side of the business.

When we set out on the journey of The Lake District Hamper Company, it was always the plan to offer a selection of bulk-buy hampers that would be available to various business clients such as hotels, self-catered holiday accommodation, as well as a range of businesses looking to purchase gifts for staff, or for networking events.

We’ve just gone live with our corporate brochure this week so it’s very exciting to see the interest gather on that front and we’re really hopeful to see how the next few months go on that front, especially in the run up to Christmas.

That’s the other advantage of having the retail side of the business up and running, that we’ve been able to get planning for our Christmas range. No you didn’t mis-hear, we’ve been planning our Christmas hampers for the last month or so, right around the time of the heatwave, making it extremely difficult to start thinking of mulled wine and figgy pudding!

Nevertheless, we’re really happy with our Christmas range, with which we’ve also taken the opportunity to bring some new suppliers on board. We think this is really important to not only branch out as a company, but to also widen the net in terms of our supply chain. At the end of the day, our core message is about promoting Cumbrian produce and aim to do that with as many suppliers as we can.

As we operate predominantly in the gift-based market, we’re hoping that Christmas is an extremely busy time for us. With our business processes and controls as they are at the moment, we hope to not miss out on the seasonal demand that will be out there in the coming months, especially this year given that we’re expecting baby number 2 in November!

We’re often asked why we would start a business with a 1 year old and another on the way and the short answer is – we’ve no idea! I suppose there’s never the perfect time to do this, you’ve just got to jump straight in and give it your all. Hopefully in a couple of years’ time they’ll turn into great little helpers!

All the best,
Richard

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