Looking Forward To Christmas!

By Tim Fussell who is the sales and production manager, Fussels Fine Foods, Cold Press Rapeseed Oil based in Frome, Somerset.

What does Christmas 2020 mean for you in your business? 

Christmas usually means preparing for the Bath Christmas Market, but not this year so we have different plans to fill the gap.  

In your business when do you start planning for Christmas?

We usually start planning for our Christmas markets in October by creating stock and booking events. All of our time is generally taken up with these events so we need to have increased stock levels at this time of  year.  

Will your business be operating differently during Quarter 4 2020? 

We will be operating differently mainly due to covid, so, much preparation is going into collaborations for Christmas hampers and promoting our online option, especially our e-commerce offering and also online cookery presentations.

Have you faced some challenges which have changed things for you? 

We have faced two main challenges this year, one is the obvious Covid crisis, wiping out 60-70% of our business overnight. All food service wholesale and direct sales just stopped, as did our events on site and off, but e-commerce and retail steadied the ship.

The second problem for us was we lost around 80% or our crop due to pests and weather. Opportunities such as being featured on Countryfile and the chance of more TV work beckoned, which enabled us to have a voice and tell our story. 

The positives are that e are still in business and growing despite all this. Hard work and sheer determination have seen us this far.

How are you feeling generally about business in your community at this time? 

Generally I'm feeling fairly positive, farming and food production is a fairly long term business, one bad year should not dictate who you are nor define who you will become.

There is much truth in the notion that one must keep on keeping on, all the time making sure that you evolve rather than stagnate. We have seen a few start ups during this time and we hope to collaborate with some of them for mutual benefit. 

And finally: 

Even at this time I consider us to be lucky, we are in essence food producers and everyone still has to eat.

For more information visit https://www.fusselsfinefoods.co.uk/