WHO said Christmas isn't worth a can of beans?
York-based Expatshopping.com, the Internet supermarket serving the needs of 13.5 million expatriates living abroad with traditional British goods, today reported exceptional trading figures for the six-week period leading up to Christmas and New Year.
Of the thousands of expatriates who logged on to its website, www.expatshopping.com, before the festive period to order items from the 1,500 grocery products available on line, the most popular order was...baked beans.
The beanfeast was part of a rush which saw the company's sales up 200 per cent on last year's figures, with £500,000 being spent by customers from around the world. As well as fulfilling orders from individual expats abroad, the organisation in Link Road, Osbaldwick, also supplies British embassies and the diplomatic community world wide.
The company had requests for Marmite from Papua New Guinea and Iron Bru from Peru. They even sent haggis to Sudan and the Reunion Islands in time for Hogmanay. But Beanz meanz Christmas.
Since the takeover of its main competitor in the embassy supply sector in September last year, the company has become the UK's premier operator in the expat sector just two years after the company's launch, with an expected turnover of £3 million.
This is beyond the expectations of Richard Finch and Simon Aldrich, the former soldiers who spotted a gap in the market for traditional British goods while serving overseas.
Philip Evans, the former head of the European retail team at Andersen, who joined the company in September last year as chief executive said: "The run-up to Christmas was exceptionally busy, with demand driven by the launch of our new catalogues.
"We are thrilled with the Christmas trading figures and the progress of the business so far."
The top ten most wanted products by expats over Christmas were:
No.1 Heinz Baked Beans
No.2 Yorkshire Tea
No.3 Nestl Kit Kat
No.4 Mr Kipling's Luxury Mince Pies
No.5 Duchy Originals Christmas Pudding
No.6 Waxed Truckle Mature Cheddar
No.7 Cadbury's Flake
No.8 Paxo Stuffing
No.9 Branston Pickle
No.10 Walkers Cheese and Onion Crisps
Updated: 11:46 Thursday, January 31, 2002
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