We've not exactly been bombarding you with Newsletters have we? The last update was back in April and there's been a lot happening since then: so here we go, starting with New Products:
In response to requests from website visitors who hadn't used Pidy products before, we launched a Pastry Post Selection Pack at the beginning of May.
The pack contains 105 pieces comprising nine different shapes, including all the different kinds of pastry such as choux, shortcrust, puff, blind-baked pastry, meringue, and the new fonçage pastry made with sunflower oil and containing only 15% fat (as used for the mini crispy Corolle and Iris).
We are offering these 105-piece packs for £10.05 (plus delivery) as an introductory offer, and they are proving very popular.
We've added a larger size of pressed puff pastry quiche case. As well as the individual 8.5cm ones we now have the rather more generous 11cm ones. They cost £17.04 for a case of 42pcs.
Since launching Pastry Post in March we've had some feedback from customers about the site's functionality. All comments and suggestions get passed back to Lana, the Pastry Post web-mistress, with the result that many small changes and refinements have been added to make the site easier to use and navigate. Probably the most noticeable is the reminder on each page of what the delivery date will be if you confirm an order. Hopefully this, and the other changes, will help us achieve our mission of clear, simple and straightforward shopping.
Next week we will post eight new recipes on the site (one for each product category).
Corolle with Soft White Cheese and Mixed Herbs
Corolle Raspberry Meringue
Quiche D'Ambert
Strawberry Tart
Crab Vol au Vent
Choux Surprise
Meringues with strawberries, and cream sharpened with mint and vodka
Mini chocolate tulip with marinated mango and cream with rum
One reason for the lack of newsletters is that we've been busy buying a chocolate company. We've bought an old-established business in Suffolk who are main distributors for the brands Callebaut (from Belgium) and Schokinag (from Germany). We will continue to run their wholesale business in East Anglia, and are in the process of launching a chocolate website www.chocolatepost.co.uk
Chocolate Post will run alongside Pastry Post, so when you shop for pastry you will be able to click into the chocolate shop and add to the same shopping basket and pay for everything at the one checkout.
A few years ago we all read about the EU butter mountain. Apparently the problem was solved at the time by using this surplus to make concentrated butter, which the EU has been selling to food manufacturers at a discounted price to use it up.
The problem now is that this subsidised butter mountain has been reduced to a molehill, and very soon will disappear altogether. According to our friends at Pidy this means they will have to start buying their butter in the open market with a hefty 40% increase in the cost.
Inevitably this will result in price increases later in the year on their butter-recipe products (principally the sweet tartlets which contain approx 30% butter). We will keep you informed.
It's a few weeks ago now, but we've been so busy after the IFE show in London that this is the first opportunity to say Thank You to everyone who visited us on the Pidy stand. It was a really busy show, with lots of interesting things to see, and a worthwhile visit for anyone involved in the food business. It was great to meet some of our customers, and in turn for them to see the wonderful finished products being demonstrated by Yves, the Pidy demonstration chef.
Yves tells us that he's working on loads of new recipes which will be published in a new book later this year as one of the events to mark Pidy's 40th Anniversary. We hope to feature some of these on the Pastry Post website recipe page as soon as they are available. We're also working on Pidy to see if we can have some of the recipe books to give away - watch this space.
As we're fairly new to on-line sales, it's been great to see how smoothly everything has been working now that we're putting a good number of orders through (thanks to Lana, our whizzie web-mistress). One suggestion from customers is that we should offer sample packs, and this is in the process of being organised. We hope these will be added to the shop within the next few days.
You can see all the Pidy products at the International Food & Drink Event at the ExCel Exhibition Centre, London Docklands. A representative of Pastry Post will be available on the Pidy Stand (SL4004) in the South Hall everyday from 10:00am to 5:30pm.
Caterers, chefs, patissiers and anyone using pastry can now buy Pidy pastry cases on-line, shipped direct from their bakery. To be kept informed about latest developments, new products, recipes and seasonal special offers please sign up for our email newsletter