Stocking up for Christmas: Xmas treats

Festive flavours to add to your offer.

People like to celebrate in a traditional way at Christmas and there's nothing with quite the traditional appeal as a cask ale - especially if it's got a seasonal twist. Badger Ales, following last year's success with Gobbledy Goose, which proved to be the Dorset brewer's most successful winter seasonal ale so far, is this time pitching in with Festive Feasant (4.5 per cent ABV).

"We know consumers respond well to ales with a quirky image," says Badger ales marketing manager Rick Payne. "The runaway success of Fursty Ferret, our most successful seasonal cask ale ever, shows drinkers like to try something that is traditional and redolent with British heritage but at the same time new and appealing. We expect Festive Feasant to go down a storm over Christmas. It's bound to rustle our rivals' feathers."

More than just a Christmas addition to the Badger range, Rick plans to use Feasant to help open new freetrade accounts and encourage more under-30s to try cask ale. It will be available in pubs from the beginning of November and is being supported by direct mail and teaser poster campaigns.

Snacks​

Don't forget to put snacks on the Christmas menu. It's the time when, as Walkers trade marketing manager Nicky Seal, says: "sharing and socialising reaches a peak and people want bigger bags, festive flavours and new products".

With that in mind Walkers is bringing back last year's best seller, Turkey & Paxo crisps, and adding Pan Fried Sausage and Sage.

Following the success of Sensations crisps, the firm is also introducing Sensations Nuts as a limited edition for the Christmas period. They come in three crispy-coated flavours - Mild Chilli Spice, Hickory Smoke and Bombay Masala.

Then there's Doritos Christmas Decorations featuring three different shapes of chips - bells, stockings and trees - for dipping in a new Christmas Dip blend of fruit and spices. "Our 2004 Christmas range builds on the huge success we had with the 2003 festive portfolio which generated an extra £17m of sales," says Nicky.

Mark Bosomworth, director of KP Nuts manufacturer UB Foodservice agrees about the opportunity. "Christmas offers operators a perfect opportunity to drive incremental sales without having a steal affect on existing snacking categories," he says.

Go crackers!​

Novelty goods company Novelties Galore is ready for the festive season with a new Christmas catering pack. Costing £64.50 (excluding VAT and delivery) it includes 100 Christmas crackers, 108 party poppers, 100 foil full-size hats, 50 rolls of flame retardant streamers and 100 blowouts - just add turkey! Call 0208 424 9966, email sales@noveltiesgalore.com or visit www.noveltiesgalore .com.

Absolut Christmas cocktails​

Special cocktails always go well when it's party time. Here's a couple of ideas from Absolut vodka.

• Absolut Christmas cooler​

Ingredients:​1 part Absolut Mandrin1 part Absolut Kurant1 part strawberry liqueur3 parts dry white wine

Method:​

Build over ice in a large wine glass and fill up with 7-Up

Garnish with a strawberry and orange spiral

Absolut Christmas Punch​

Ingredients:​1 part Absolut Kurant1 part Absolut Vodka1 part Absolut Citron1 part honey10 parts cranberry juice

Method:​

Heat all ingredients gently in a saucepan. Strain and serve in tempered wine glasses.

Garnish with a lemon slice studded with cloves, mint leaves and cinnamon sticks.

Licensee Alison Smith passes on advice for a profitable Christmas​

We're not doing anything unusual for Christmas - we're just using our ethos of doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. As we're still in our first year we're using Christmas as a marketing tool and have had to consider who we're appealing to. We intend to acquire many new customers over the period using our Christmas menu, which is a balance of traditional and a bit more challenging food.

We're keeping our eye on the details, including some "free" extras such as extremely high quality crackers, hors-d'oeuvres and mince pies.

Our Christmas menu was finalised a month ago and is already in circulation - we've taken a number of large bookings.

Business trade is a key part of the take-up of our offer. They book early and look for lunchtimes and early evening starts.

My main tips for Christmas preparations are:

• Plan for Christmas early and consider the implications of offering a Christmas menu alongside an existing food offer. Do you have the fridge space, the prep space and the skills?
• With the market saturated with offers design an experience that is unique and will appeal to your target customers
• If you're marketing to new customers make sure you have a method to record who they are. Build a customer database - but be careful of data protection laws!
• Make people come back in the New Year by including a bounce-back promotion
• Put something interesting in your Christmas crackers - make them bespoke
• A pre-order form for food can be a lifesaver for stock
  control, improving speed of delivery as well as avoiding
  disappointment. People are usually happy to fill these in and it won't cheapen your offer
• Take deposits to avoid no-shows
• Don't run out of beer!

Alison Smith is the lessee of Bar One Nine in Keynsham, near Bristol.​