Jerry Tweney, owner of Prestbury Village Stores, in Cheltenham, says the snow over the Christmas break was a great bit of marketing for his store. 

“We’ve just enjoyed some of the best marketing possible for any c-store retailer - snow. It’s free and it’s a great way to get new customers into the store who would never normally come in. Hopefully that’s earnt us a few new customers for the year.  

”Surprisingly, despite it being the first week back after the Christmas break, footfall is on a par with an ordinary week. It’s dry now which always helps as people like to get to the store on foot.”

He says his shoppers are looking for low fat and sugar variants as they start their new year diets.  

”I’m selling an amazing amount of fresh fruit now. I’ve got shoppers coming in who have been coming in for months and never bought fruit from here before, now asking me where my fruit is. We’re also selling a lot more skimmed milk rather than full fat, and Flora Light, basically all the lighter versions of products.

“I think come later in the month, say January 14th, most people will have given up on their new year health kicks.”

Jerry says one great seller through December was the Fever Tree range of tonics.

”I didn’t do this range until the festive season and the whole range was incredibly popular. The bottles look really good and premium so people are very happy to spend a bit more for those.”

With Christmas done and dusted, Jerry is very much preparing for Spring.

”As soon as December 29th came, we took down our Christmas decorations and put up our Valentine’s Day cards and even put out our Cadbury’s Creme Eggs.

”I think we could easily sell Cadbury’s Creme Eggs all year round. They’re quite a talking point too as people come in and say ‘oh you’ve got these out already!’ almost in a criticising way, but then they happily buy some!”

Successful NPD:

Rowntrees 30% less sugar Fruit Pastilles:

”There’s been a real drive to control the sugar intake in youngsters and I think this is something which will continue to become more prominent over the next year so retailers have to move with the times. There are new low sugar Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles which are really popular.”

Nestlé’s Rowntree’s unveiled brand new 30% less sugar versions of two of its best-selling products;  Fruit Pastilles and Randoms, in Spring 2017. 

As well as having 30% less sugar, the new products also have fewer calories and remain free from artificial flavours, colours and sweeteners ensuring 100% fruity flavour.

The launch followed hot on the heels of Nestlé’s announcement that it will remove 10% of the sugar across its confectionery portfolio by 2018.