CHRISTMAS HAMPERS & DAILY GIFT BASKET SCHEDULES (Covid19 Impact)

Update Saturday 14^th 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 4^th December, your order will be shipped between 30^th November  and 2^nd December

 

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

 

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

 

If you select FRIDAY 8^th January, your order will be shipped between  20^th December  and  5^th 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 8^th January if you are happy for your hamper to arrive after Christmas Day.

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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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.

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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.

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!

 

Christmas Morning

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.

Christmas Jupiter

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.

Xmas Celebrations

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.

Christmas Traditional Celebration

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.

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:

Battle of the Biscuits

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

Christmas Traditional Grand

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.

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.

Christmas Saturn

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.

Gourmet Wine Celebration

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.

Chocolate Extravaganza

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!

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.

Ancient York Gift Basket

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!

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.

The Kings Hamper

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.

The Queen's Hamper

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.

The President's Hamper

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.

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.

Buy Your Christmas Gift Basket Now - We are 30% Reserved Already

It may only be the beginning of December but we are already 30% reserved! As a small business, we have grown from nothing and our belief in only stocking the gift baskets and hampers in our range with the finest and freshest products has got us to where we are today. We believe this is the reason we are so popular and have customers returning year after year… they know no matter what the price point their hamper will be brimming with only the most luxurious products, fresh and crafted to the highest standard.

When it comes to Christmas we must prepare months in advance. The process begins during the summer - developing new products, tweaking old favourites to keep them up to date with current trends and From looking at previous years sales we can forecast which gift baskets will be our best sellers in order to roughly estimate how many baskets will need prepacked in the run up to Christmas.

During the year all of our gift baskets and hampers are made to order. During the festive season, as the number of orders increase we must prepare in order to meet demand, so we begin prepacking gift baskets in November. Once the Christmas orders start rolling in, we can narrow down this years most popular hampers.- knowing when they will no longer be in stock and encourage our customer to order soon if the gift basket they are interested in falls within this category. In some instances we may be able to order more of the products which fill the hampers to come back in stock and thus the gift basket can be restocked, but this is not always viable. We would recommend ordering sooner rather than later… just to be on the safe side!

 

All of our gift baskets and hampers are packed by hand. This not only takes a lot of time, but also a lot of effort by our dedicated team of packing staff. When prepacking the gift baskets the team create an assembly line, laying out every basket and placing each individual item in one by one. By placing the products in the hamper by hand we can pay close attention to the quality control of each individual gift basket, ensuring the baskets are presented perfectly. Not only are the baskets packed by hand but they are also wrapped, tied with ribbon and placed in a protective box by hand.

Although a small family run business, we are mighty. As you can see this is a huge operation, a real team effort by everyone in the warehouse to ensure the hampers you love are perfectly assembled, wrapped and waiting to go. We have hundreds of gift baskets and hampers pre-packed and ready to go some as a corporate thank you for an office team and others to be nestled beautifully under the tree of a friend or family member to wish them a very Merry Christmas.

 

Gourmet Chocolate Upgrade in Christmas Gift Baskets

We recently received a phone call from one of our most well loved suppliers - Lily O'Briens. They were calling to let us know that they had ran out of packaging for their Triple Chocolate Indulgence… we began to panic. This box of chocolates is featured in a vast majority of our Christmas gift baskets… what were we going to do? We couldn’t leave the chocolates out, there would be a massive hole in the contents of the basket! The Triple Chocolate Indulgence is always so well received.  To make up for the loss Lily O’Briens offered us a replacement product and what a pleasant surprise it was. They were upgrading the Triple Chocolate Indulgence which contains 7 finely crafted chocolates to the Exquisite Edition Chocolates which contains 30 gourmet Irish Chocolates.

Obviously, we had to tell you - the customer about this amazing deal we have got our hands on. A variety of our bigger baskets which originally contained the Triple Chocolate Indulgence have now been upgraded to The Exquisite Edition chocolates with no additional costs to you! Although many of our gift baskets have been enhanced unfortunately we can not upgrade all of the hampers containing the original product to The Exquisite Edition as the basket in which they are placed in are not big enough to fit this new humongous box. Each of the contents of our hampers are like a jigsaw puzzle, placed to fit within its basket perfectly. For this reason our bigger gift baskets and hampers have been upgraded to the bigger box of chocolates. Lets have a little look at what you were originally getting and compare it to the upgrade:

The Original - Lily O’Briens Triple Chocolate Indulgence

A variety of 3 different mouth watering layers of dark, milk and white chocolate complete this 7 piece collection of chocolates with a total weight of 108g. ‘Chocolate Trio’ A decadent chocolate layered with dark, scrumptious milk and sweet white chocolate. The next chocolate is the ‘Raspberry Supreme’ this is a a milk and dark chocolate which has been infused with raspberry topped off with a white chocolate sprinkled with raspberry pieces and the final chocolate within the trio is called the ‘Caramel Fusion’. Similar to the Raspberry Supreme the chocolate contains a dark and milk chocolate base laced with caramel pieces and topped off a caramel infused white chocolate.  Sliding this into our hampers is an easy task due to the small delicate nature of the box and has always been a welcomed treat by gift basket recipients.

The Upgrade - The Exquisite Edition

An assortment of 30 opulent chocolates with a combined weight of 300g. This array of chocolates contains exotic ingredients harvested in far off lands and simple ingredients obtained from the Irish countryside delivering a taste journey which is intended to inspire and excite. Fifteen delectable delights can be found within the Exquisite Edition from a creamy white chocolate sprinkled with delightful raspberry pieces and infused with zesty lemon to chocolates which would more traditionally be found in a box chocolates such as a roasted hazelnut praline studded with crispy wafer pieces and coated in a silky milk chocolate.  An exciting assortment of well loved traditional chocs and exciting new world additions. This is an upgrade that will leave your family jumping for joy.

As you can see from the pictures above there really is a big difference, even the packaging is more luxurious. This upgrade is amazing, there is no denying that. It is even better for you as our original price has not increased. If you have purchased one of these hampers for Christmas over the past couple of weeks and the order has not yet gone to the recipient your order will be upgraded. This offer can only last for a limited amount of time as we only have a limited number of these chocolates - once they are gone, they’re gone! Get your order in quickly to avoid disappointment.

Irish Gourmet Wishes You A Happy New Year

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for using us as your Gift Basket & Hamper provider at Christmas and throughout the year. We hope that everyone has had a wonderful year and we wish you a Happy New Year and that you have a good and prosperous year.

Irish Gourmet's Sparkling Baskets For New Years

Everyone knows that the best time to receive gifts is after the rush of Christmas. So this year surprise someone with a lovely gourmet gift basket that will also help them celebrate the New Year in style. 

We have an extensive Gift Basket range which all include Champagne. Take a look at a few we have to offer.

Irish Gourmet Wishes Everyone Happy Holidays

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Everyone at Irish Gourmet would like to wish you Happy Holidays and we hope you are having a lovely day with your friends and family. Let's spread the Festive spirit and share this message with everyone that matters to you.

Irish Gourmet's Plan To #MakeChristmasEasy

Christmas shopping can be very stressful for many people. One of the main reason why we do what we do at Irish Gourmet is too make buying gifts easy and stress free. So this got us thinking that every year we #MakeChristmasEasy. If you like the idea of making your Christmas shopping easy, then read on and I will explain how in 8 simple steps (technically you will only need to follow 4 steps we will then take care of it from then on.)

1. If you require some inspiration to find that perfect gift then you should visit our Pinterest page (This step is optional)

· We have 3 specific pin boards for Christmas they include Family, Gourmet and Traditional

2. Visit the Christmas Webpage

· You can shop by type of basket or by budget (below is the different options available)

3. Precede to Checkout & Register an account with Irish Gourmet (total time spent = less than 5 mins)

You are asked to provide the following details

o Your Full Name

o Your Email Address

o Your Country & Zip/Postal Code

o Your Address & City

o Your Telephone Number

o A secure Password

(Remember to tick the SHIP TO ANOTHER ADDRESS box)

4. Add your chosen gift(s) to your Cart

You are asked to provide the following details

o Shipping information

o Shipping method

o Payment method

(Remember to tick the add GIFT CARD MESSAGE box)

This is the point where you can just sit back and relax, we will take over from here.

5. Your Basket/Hamper is then packed by the Warehouse team

6. Your filled Basket/Hamper is then hand wrapped and decorated with a ribbons

7. Your finished gift Basket/Hamper is then sent out for delivery

8. Your friend or family member enjoys their gifts

Irish Gourmet's Christmas Stock Has Arrived

Irish Gourmet are busy bees at Christmas time. We have to be so organised and make sure that the Christmas stock is ordered and delivered at the correct time, we also need to pre-pack non-perishable Christmas Gift Hampers to save time during the last few weeks of December, which is one of our busiest times of the year. 

This year we have been so organised we placed an order for our Christmas Jams & Chutneys in the beginning of 2014. It is a year long process to receive our order because our supplier is a microproducer who picks the fruit themselves in the summer and then spends the autumn months making it in small batches of 20. 

Our organic smoked salmon is so fresh that the earliest it can be delivered is the 17th December to ensure that it has an after Christmas shelf life. Our baked goods including mince pies and Christmas pudding are being made in small batches and delivered weekly to ensure that the stay fresh for our baskets. The baked goods have to come in early because mince pies are not just for Christmas, people want them in their hampers from November. 

The cheese is made fresh and delivered in stages to ensure ultimate freshness. We are the freshest Hamper company.  Christmas puddings in late October and that was the start of it, since then we have had lovely Christmas food pouring in.

You can find baskets full of this delicious food at our Christmas Gift Hampers page.

St Patrick's Day Facebook Competition By Irish Gourmet

Competition Time - Win An Irish Themed Hamper To Celebrate St Patrick's Day, Courtesy of Irish Gourmet.

About Irish Gourmet  - we are a luxury hamper company, operating throughout the year and are especially busy at Christmas time with Gourmet Christmas hampers. We source high-end, artisan products from around Ireland and the UK, but the majority of our products are of Irish origin.

You can order from our UK or Ireland website for next day delivery.

What better way to celebrate St Patrick's Day than with a hamper stuffed full of yummy, Irish goodies!

To be entered into the draw to win simply:

1. Like Our Irish Gourmet Facebook Page
2. Like & Share The Competition Post
3. Comment On The Post To Tell Us Your Favourite Item

GOOD LUCK!

T&C’s:

1. Competition closure will be announced in advance on Facebook.
2. Winner will be drawn at random from all eligible entries & announced on Facebook.
3. Prize cannot be exchanged for cash alternatives.
4. Delivery of prize must be made to an address in Ireland or UK.
5. We reserve the right to remove, edit and cancel this promotion at any time.