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 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.

 

Irish Gourmet Christmas Hampers 2012

It's not even Halloween yet, but at Irish Gourmet we have been preparing for Christmas for many months now! It's now only 70 days to go!

The product offering is decided as far in advance as Spring, then the design and photography are carried out during the Summer months. Finally in the Autumn the pricing & list of contents are written up, then we launch the Christmas Catalogue and add the Christmas baskets and hampers to our website. 

For Christmas 2012 there are a few old favourites back such as the popular 'Great Taste Award Winning' range and the 'Traditional' range. They have of course been updated for 2012 though to include the latest, tastiest products.

Christmas Traditional Feast - £77.99/€101.39

Great Taste Award Silver Hamper - £84.99/€110.49

Also new for Autumn 2012 is the 'Artisan' range which consist of local, gourmet products from small producers around Ireland. This include organic smoked salmon, cooked ham joints, gourmet cheese selections and handmade chutneys, jams and chocolates.

Artisan Elite Hamper - £129.99/€168.99

 We offer fast delivery at competitive prices which includes full tracking details. Customer support is also available at the click of a button, as our dedicated team answer your emails.

So check out www.irishgourmet.ie and www.irishgourmet.co.uk for all your Christmas hamper needs.

Irish Gourmet Christmas Review

Hi Folks,

Apologies it has been so long since my last post. There is so much to tell you about!

A fairly recent occasion & the biggest of the gift basket year has just passed, so I thought I would take some time to review it. Yes you guessed it - Christmas Time!

Thank You

The team here at Irish Gourmet would like to say a big thank you to everyone who shopped with us during November & December for Christmas hampers & gift baskets. We hope your friends & family members enjoyed receiving & eating the contents! We know many of you shop with us every year & we really appreciate your continued custom. We have been steadily growing for the past 10 years and keep making improvements to the systems every year. Our aim is to be a well oiled machine! One thing remains constant though; we only offer great quality, local food that we have taste tested & love!

New Irish Products

We are always keen to add new lines to our range, so new products for Christmas 2011 included a new "Chutney For Cheese & Wine" & "Beetroot Blush" from Janet's Country Fayre in Co. Wicklow. Fruity Rice & Oat Crisp Clusters from Mackle Snacks in Dungannon. Skelligs Chocolates were also back for this Christmas after a devastating fire destroyed their factory in Co. Kerry last year. Danucci Chocolates from Co. Louth were also reintroduced back into our gift baskets in 2011. We also stock more fresh meats at Christmas time, so bring in extra Ummera Organic smoked salmon (in various sizes) as well as their bacon rashers, duck breasts & chicken crowns. We also stock Brady Family's carved glazed traditional ham & cooked ham joints at this time of year.

No Snow!

We were so pleased the snow stayed away this December & no pipes were bursting! It meant we were able to keep dispatching Christmas hampers right up until the 22nd December, for delivery on 23rd December. Some of the couriers even worked the Saturday 24th, Christmas Eve, to get those last few parcels delivered.

We even dispatched baskets on Friday 23rd December & these were delivered as soon as the courier companies reopened again on 28th December. We were then busy again on 28th & 29th December too, dispatching New Year gift baskets & helping to resolve any problems.

After Sales Care

With so many gift baskets being dispatched there are inevitably a few delivery problems, such as the recipient not being home when delivery was first attempted & they need help re-arranging delivery. As a good will gesture we also dispatched some fresh cheese packs to recipients who couldn't get a 2nd delivery attempt rescheduled until after Christmas. We also did very well in terms of few breakages too this year. We bubble wrap individual jars and our boxes are padded inside with air pockets, but occasionally a jar still might arrive broken (if a courier might have been particularly heavy handed with a box for example). When this happens we send out a fresh gift basket or a complimentary hamper to replace any damaged goods. We want the recipients to be delighted with their basket & so work hard to help on those rare occasions something might go wrong. Of course you get the odd chancer who refuses to take any responsibility when incorrect address or telephone numbers have been supplied. Even then we do our best to come up with a suitable resolution, but we do ask for costs to be covered for return to sender, redelivery & restocking fees - never mind the administration time & costs involved.

To Conclude...

So all in all a successful Christmas & New Year was had! January has been busy with VAT receipts & returns (the fun!), but also with updating our gift basket offering. We'll be back in touch soon with all the latest news.

Many thanks,

The Irish Gourmet