Time nears for gift hampers

Claire Cilliers and Rachael Dawson from The Grocers are offering gift hampers this Christmas. PHOTO/FILE

Wanganui's foodie fans Rachael Dawson and Claire Cilliers are taking their gourmet food business into a new realm this Christmas, offering gift hampers for corporates.

The pair launched The Grocers last November to fill a food niche in Wanganui by sourcing gourmet foods from producers around the country.

They use that name because they see it as a comfortable fit around the sorts of food they are selling - foodstuffs that people have to order with The Grocers getting those products from the list of suppliers they have in place.

Both women are self-confessed foodies, but said a lot of the time they could not find ingredients for recipes they often came across in magazines, things like specialty cheeses, chocolates and varieties of deli meats. They realised they could fill a niche.

Ms Dawson said it involved "heaps of work" to find suppliers. They also realised they could not hold much stock on hand, especially perishable items, so it meant getting supply lines in place direct with those suppliers.

They said their suppliers were passionate about the food they create. For them quality is the priority while volumes and sales is secondary to them. They're not prepared to compromise.

From black puddings to horseradish and apricot mustard, from triple cream brie to fig, port and cardamom paste. They can source it.

But Ms Cilliers said they had a "moment" recently when they realised there were only 77 days to Christmas.

"Unfortunately that includes the weekends so in short there are just 10 working weeks to Christmas shutdown," she said.

"So we've been giving local businesses a gentle reminder that if they want to sort client or customer gifts, now is the time to do it."

Ms Dawson said they had created an extensive range of gourmet hampers ranging from $45.

"In fact, the sky's the limit. All the hampers are beautifully packaged and delivered anywhere in New Zealand. We can also include a business compliment slip and your corporate colours.

"We're also able to offer specialist boxes for say cheese lovers or meat lovers. And we can send nationally as we have partnered with a courier company," she said.

"We can do baskets and boxes and even crates. All the products are NZ-made and many producers have been awarded national cuisine awards."

To contact The Grocers call 0800 476 2377 or email: info@thegrocers.co.nz.