Chris Shelley, co-owner of a Budgens store in Horsham, West Sussex, says the light snowfall has been very positive for business.

“The snow has had a positive impact on sales. We’ve done pretty well this week. So far we’ve done an extra £3,000 worth of sales compared to last week.

“It’s good that we’ve had a bit of snow but not as much as was forecast and so we haven’t had too much trouble with deliveries. This morning’s was a bit later but I’m quite impressed considering some of the roads at the moment.

”The protein thing is a big trend across the board. Men and women are both much more intersted in their fitness now and this seems to go hand-in-hand with increasing protein intake.Another big trend is healthy snacking which I would say is more of a female led trend.

“I always think the healthier and protein-filled snacks are very expensive for what they are but people don’t seem to mind.

”The next event to think about is Mother’s Day. We swapped our gondola end displays of boxed chocolates straight from Valentine’s Day, to Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is a bit bigger than Valentine’s Day for us.

“We are also swimming on Easter Eggs at the moment so hopefully they will all sell. It’s always the case that you get them in advance and they all sell in the last three to four days.”

Successful NPD:

“We’ve just got a new wooden FSDU for our Graze products. It looks good and the products sell really well. They are healthy snacks and some of them are high in protein so they hit the mark in terms of the big trends.

“We get 12 of the 15 lines that are available through Budgens so we’ve got nine snack pots and three big bags.”