Saturday, November 14, 2020

CHRISTMAS HAMPERS & DAILY GIFT BASKET SCHEDULES (Covid19 Impact)

Update Saturday 14th November 2020

Thank you to all our customers past and present for their continued support of our business.  It has been a challenging year for all of us.

We are working continuously to achieve two things for our customers during lockdown.

1) We will continue to provide a Gift Basket Service for all Non Christmas Occasions

2) We will attempt to operate as normal a Christmas Hamper Manufacturing Operation as is humanly possible.

THERE ARE NO EXACT PREFERRED DELIVERY DATES OR TIMES UNTIL EASTER AT THE EARLIEST.  


FOR CHRISTMAS HAMPERS:

If you select FRIDAY 4th December, your order will be shipped between 30th November  and 2nd December

 

If you select  FRIDAY 11th December, your order will be shipped between 3rd December  and 9th December

 

If you select FRIDAY 18th December, your order will be shipped between 9th December  and 18th  December

 

If you select FRIDAY 8th January, your order will be shipped between  20th December  and  5th January, 2021  

 

(NB there is a very real possibility that delivery couriers will stop uplifting freight in Christmas week and will instead concentrate purely on deliveries, so we only recommend picking 8th January if you are happy for your hamper to arrive after Christmas Day.

****************************************************************

Our  schedule for DAILY GIFT BASKET DISPATCH for the rest of the year is as follows.

 

Orders placed Thursday 12th November to Wednesday 18th November will ship between Monday 16th November and Thursday 19th November, 2020

 

Orders placed Thursday 19th November to Wednesday 25th November will ship between Monday 23rd November and Thursday 26th November, 2020

 

Orders placed Thursday 26th November to Wednesday 2nd December will ship between Monday 30th November and Thursday 3rd December, 2020

 

Orders placed Thursday 3rd December to Wednesday 9th December will ship between Monday 7th December and Thursday 10th December, 2020

 

Orders placed Thursday 10th December to Wednesday 16th December will ship between Thursday17th December and Friday 18th December, 2020

 

*****************************************************************

The reason for this schedule is due to pressures on the delivery network and our operational system of managing exceptional volumes.  

We are a warehouse manufacturing operation, not a retailer, so please do not take offence if we appear slower as in the past.  We respond to all emails swiftly and are committed to delivering a super service and your satisfaction. Unfortunately we can only control the process from the moment of your order to the moment it leaves our warehouse, which is why we are being so clear about what we are capable of achieving.

If you require an exact delivery date, please don’t order.

If our dispatch schedule does not suit, then once again please don’t order.  

However if you want the best quality, the best designed and the best value hampers and gift baskets in the Ireland, Britain and Europe and our schedule agrees with you, then we will be delighted to be of service and will do whatever it takes to make your Christmas Hamper shopping experience with us a happy one.

Next Update Next Weekend.

 _               _                    _                  _                   _
 
Update Monday 9th November 2020

All orders are still being processed, shipped and delivered. As throughout lockdown, we continue to operate a weekly delivery schedule.

You are very welcome to pre-book for Christmas now. Simply select your preferred delivery week in December. We are experiencing very high order volumes - and recommend reserving gift baskets now, as we run the risk of selling out very early this Xmas.

You will only see Friday dates available in the calendar at checkout. We are busy dispatching Monday-Thursday and so your order may arrive a few days before this. The Friday date is the LATEST date your gift will arrive, not the exact date. Unfortunately specific delivery dates cannot be met at this time.

To recap the delivery dates going forward into November will be:

Friday 13th November

Friday 20th November

Friday 27th November

December 4th December

As a rough guideline, orders received from Friday to Monday morning will ship on Monday/Tuesday. Orders received on Monday/Tuesday will ship on Wednesdays and orders received on Wednesday/Thursday AM will ship on Thursday.

We are noticing an increase in demand for our service, as lockdown measures become more stringent. As such we may need to bring the cut off point forward to Wednesday PM instead of Thursday AM. It is a time intensive process assembling Gift Baskets, and our staff are working as quickly as they can. We will keep you updated.

For additional guidance/T&C's on this please click here.

Our sales and support team are working remotely. Please get in touch via via email, rather than phone, if you have any queries, as we are not always able to answer calls.

We hope you all keep safe and well.

Friday, December 14, 2018

We're Still Dispatching for Christmas Delivery - IrishGourmet



Come rain or shine we're still dispatching, however in consideration of the adverse weather we ask that if you haven't placed your order yet now is definitely the time do so, to ensure it gets to your recipient in time for Christmas.  You can see the warehouse has started to empty at this stage but we're still offering a wide variety of amazing Christmas Gift Baskets & Hampers after a replenishment of stock for our Best Selling gifts only! Some companies have set next Monday as their last date for dispatches already, our gifts are still being sent out next week.

Our warehouse is becoming less and less full.

Our warehouse may be emptying but it's still a very busy place to be and there's no time to slow down, not only do we have to fulfill orders placed well in advance for customers' selected delivery days we also have to anticipate and react to the new orders coming in on a daily basis.

We're Still Dispatching!

Some of the Gift Baskets and Hampers featured in the video included Christmas Morning, Christmas Jupiter, Xmas Celebrations Hamper and Christmas Traditional Celebration. Some of our Christmas Best Sellers have proved so popular that we had to order in more stock to continue to provide our customers with their favourites but once it's gone this time, it's gone!
 

Non Alcoholic and delightfully designed to contain only the best examples of a traditional Christmas Gift Basket. A popular gift solution as a great price.


Large - like it's planetary namesake - they'll be spoiled for choice when they receive this King of Baskets filled with extraordinary sweet treats and sumptuous confectionery.

It's a design we're particularly excited to launch this Christmas, as it follows our philosophy of only filling our hampers with products we'd be delighted to receive ourselves, at a price level which is psychologically important to many customers.


No Christmas Hamper has ever sold as many units as our original Christmas Traditional Celebration Gift Hamper. This is the original classic updated for 2018.

At Christmas time specified delivery dates are met on a best endeavour basis. Whilst we do our utmost to deliver on, or as close to specific dates, please be aware that delivery may take place a couple of days before or after your preferred date. This is due to the thousands of orders being processed through the system, and the delivery network.  So please ensure you place your order now with plenty of time left before Christmas.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The Big Christmas Dispatch Is Upon Us - IrishGourmet


We're currently in the middle of one of our busiest weeks this December and everyone is working really hard to fulfill our lovely customers' orders.  The warehouse is running like a well oiled machine, each process perfectly timed and planned out in a regimental fashion.  It's crucial that each member of staff know their role within the production chain in order to process and dispatch the volumes of orders we receive each Christmas, so a big thank you to our dedicated warehouse and office staff, we wouldn't get through Christmas unscathed without them!


Each step in the process is crucial

By the end of this week we should really start to see the difference in the warehouse as it becomes less and less full.  For now here it is running at optimum performance, with all hand's on deck.


As you can see there are so many intricacies involved as part of our gifts and each part is completed in-house, from hand-packing our baskets and cold packs to assembling our protective delivery packaging, absolutely nothing is outsourced.


Pre-packed Battle of the Biscuits

The Gift Basket featured in the video above is Battle of the Biscuits and the Hamper is Christmas Traditional Grand. If any of the Gift Baskets or Hampers featured in the video caught your eye for someone special this Christmas, check them out below:

A perennial best selling baked biscuits gift basket, full of tea time favourites & warmly received by all ages.

For those sending to send an Impressive Christmas Hamper. Dominated by Traditional Festive Foods and Wonderful World Tastes. The Grand is your launchpad for bigger and better.

With the warehouse gradually emptying this week its more important than ever that you place your order now while stocks last!  We have lots of Christmas and Occasion baskets that are sure to make the perfect gift for your recipient.

Monday, December 10, 2018

We're prepared for the big dispatch - 50% of you have ordered.



Our warehouse is full to the brim, we're not kidding when we say our baskets are piled sky high, but not for long...from next week onwards it will look considerably less full. This is because Monday marks the beginning of our big dispatch, many customers preferred delivery dates fall between this week coming and next week. This means the majority of our Baskets & Hampers will begin their epic journeys across lands and seas, ensuring each gift arrives in good time for Christmas.


A sense of scale - Jake our 6ft 2" warehouse operative beside a mountain of pre-packed gifts.

Every warehouse operative has an assigned set of tasks to make sure the process of packing, boxing and dispatching the massive amount of baskets runs smoothly, it's critical that each member of staff know's the flow when dealing with such large volumes of stock.

Here's a peek at such processes captured in the height of operations.



Just in case they caught your eye as an ideal Christmas Gift - the Gift Baskets featured being packed in the above video are Christmas Saturn and Gourmet Wine Celebration and the Hamper featured is Chocolate Extravaganza.


A modern take on the classic "Tea and Coffee" Basket from our new collection of out-of-this-world Xmas Baskets. Freshly baked Xmas sweet treats mixed with impressively chic chocolates and confectionery.


A delicious savoury Gift Basket that incorporates big bold flavours. Creamy cheeses, French pate, Swiss chocolates and spiced nuts infuse together to produce a Gift Basket that's high in taste and presentational impact.


If you are serious about chocolate then the Chocolate Extravaganza Hamper is the gift choice for you! Crammed to capacity with chocolate and sweet delights made by small artisan chocolate producers. The result is a huge variety of novelty chocolate boxes, bars and baked goodies they won't have come across before making this a chocolate hamper that stands out from the crowd.

Time running out, Christmas is nearly upon us and 50% of our customers have already ordered, so please place your order now!

Saturday, December 08, 2018

Fresh is best when it comes to Gift Baskets







It's as busy as ever today in the warehouse, the orders are flowing in thick and fast, but you'll only really see the difference in our full up warehouse next week when lots of our Gift Baskets and Hampers are out for delivery. Pre-packing must continue on if we want to stay ahead of schedule, our warehouse staff painstakingly pack each Basket by hand and decorate them with festive Christmas ribbon to give them that WOW factor we're renowned for!



The freshness of our gifts is something we take very seriously , whether the content includes fresh deli meats, fresh salmon and ham or freshly baked treats such as biscuits, cakes and mince pies, we like to make sure that you the customer get as long as shelf life as possible for each individual product, thats why we leave pre-packing until December so that's it's as close as possible to popular Christmas dispatch dates.


The video above shows the process of pre-packing the Ancient York Gift Basket - an American inspired goodies basket is filled with muffins and cupcakes, as well as a host of cookies, biscuits and hot drinks for sharing. A great value, mid priced gift basket created with our customers in mind.
With fresh bakes from local artisan producers it truly is luxury for a fraction of the cost in comparison to some of our competitors.  Fabulous Gift Baskets like this are selling out fast right now so please place your orders as soon as possible!

Friday, December 07, 2018

We're Still Busy Packing & Preparing - We are 42% Allocated

We're still busy packing away, preparing for the avalanche of Christmas orders coming and going daily at this point. That's why it's imperative that you place your Christmas order with us as soon as possible.
Here is a peek behind the scenes at our busy warehouse staff pre-packing a variety of our Giant Christmas Hampers such as The King's Hamper, The Queen's Hamper and The President's Hamper today to stay ahead of the demand - a live action preview of all our hard work and preparation that allows us to be faster, better organised, and ultimately allows us to deliver our exceptional customer service experience, which we are very proud of!
Packing very large luxury hamper's such as these is certainly time intensive, as you can see they a brimming with an extensive range of high quality food's.  The greatest care is taken by our hardworking staff to ensure that all of that product neatly fits into not one but two large wicker Hampers and that the impact they create upon receipt is nothing short of stunning.
A bounteous Hamper overflowing with classic champers, a multitude of fine wines and a wide selection of spirited and interesting gourmet foods. Incorporating baked festive favourites, a host of cheeses, and a plethora of delicious great taste award winning sweet and savoury delights made by homegrown speciality food producers in the UK & Ireland.
Nothing should ever get in the way of the Queen's Hamper or obstruct the Queen's Hamper, which is why we have laid it out in widescreen format to appreciate it's magnificence.
When you're looking to buy a Hamper at this price level, you will find very few options which don't focus on labels. This is the hamper which emphasises the careful selection of the finest elements.
With the big day approaching at speed, we're currently around 42% allocated right now. There's only a couple of weeks left to get your order in for Christmas so please place your orders ASAP.

Thursday, December 06, 2018

Buy Your Christmas Hamper Soon - We are 40% allocated

 

The warehouse is bustling, our team are scurrying about packing, wrapping and boxing carefully with precision, taking in everything and ensuring the gift basket your friends and family are going to receive is perfect in every way. 40% of our gift baskets are already allocated and the festive season has only really begun. You might be asking, Why is so much of their stock allocated already?
We work tirelessly year round creating new gift baskets, making little changes to well loved favourites, listening to your feedback and bettering ourselves from it. But just like any business, Christmas is our most busy time of the year which is why we need to be prepared.
We get in extra staff and work around the clock to meet the demand during the festive season. Our gift  baskets and hampers all contain only the finest and freshest ingredients but we must prepack in order to be prepared. Currently 40% of our pre-packed gift baskets are allocated to customers who have already got their order in.
At the moment we are packing multiples of hundreds of gift baskets per day. This number fluctuates depending on the type of hamper and also its size meaning that thousands are pre-packed for Christmas per week during the months of November and December. We pre-pack tens of thousands of  hampers during the festive season, only our Christmas gift baskets are pre-packed - our new baby, get well soon, birthday baskets and so on are all made to order. So this rough figure does not include all of our miscellaneous baskets we send out during the festive season.
We are currently packing our Great Taste Award Range. This range contains many award winning fine gourmet preserves, chutneys and treats. These can be packed at the minute as they often have a longer shelf life than fresh produce such as freshly baked mince pies or smoked salmon.
You can see from the photos and video the velocity of this operation. This is rolled out with precision, excellent timing and care. One that is run under the strict supervision of Pieter. Pieter is a master at his trade - he has been over seeing the production of our Christmas gift baskets and hampers for the past 10 years! Pieter and his team are very fast and efficient. Once the baskets are packed by the team, they are passed onto Eva. Eva is our head of quality control. A lady with a keen eye for detail, no imperfections slip through the cracks when Eva is around.
With forty percent of all of our Christmas and gift baskets already allocated to customers make sure you get your order in ASAP, we reached 33% allocation very quickly and the allocation number is only going to grow as we approach the big day. Click here to see the range.