Monday, March 14, 2011

MARCH NEWS

Hello Folks,
Let's get you up to date with all the news from Sweets and Treats.


GIANT JELLY BABIES - what a disastrous saga it still is. We finally received our shipment of the overly long awaited Giant Jelly Babies only to find they were nothing like they used to be!! They were rubbish by comparison. We were all so shocked and disappointed. We voiced our utter dismay to the manufacturer and they admitted that there were problems with the new factory and agreed to look into the Giant Jelly Baby issue. They came back to us and said that they would make changes to the texture and flavour, but they would not be able to reproduce the colours of the original. How disappointing. Then they said they would not release the new version until they got rid of the old stock. How disappointing. We are waiting for a sample package so that we can at least see if they have been able to improve the quality as promised. I am not holding out great hopes. There have been problems with the whole jelly range and they are not very interested in producing a quality product anymore. It is a big company and they do not care about the end user, only the cost and ease of production. How disappointing......... We will let you know when the new stock arrives.
Post Script - The new batch is due off the production line at the end of March


VALHALLA ICECREAM - we have two brand new freezers and more wonderful Tasmanian made icecream from Valhalla. We now have 28 flavours. John and Luke have made a delicious Strawberry Choc Chip icecream for us and we all love it. Lots of customers are having it as a double with the Peppermint Choc Chip - it looks great and they love the combo as well. We have Mango sorbet back in for the warmer weather and Butterscotch, Coconut and Pineapple iceream as well due to customer demand.


FLYING SAUCERS have been out of stock for weeks but we have been told that they may be available again sometime next week.
Post script - Flying saucers are now back on our shelf


TURKISH DELIGHT - the long awaited 3 new flavours will be in our next shipment due next week!! There will be LEMON, ORANGE and CHERRY as well as the traditional ROSE flavour in our counter display for you to try. We are really looking forward to seeing the response from the Turkish Delight lovers.
 Post script - We now have them in store and they are fabulous!


ENGLISH SWEETS - one of our wholesalers has offered us a new range of English sweets under the label of BONDS. Now we used to stock a BONDS range of english sweets when we first opened all those years ago, but they disappeared to be replaced with other brands. Bonds were a quality product back then and we are hoping that this is still the case. The range is very much the same as what we currently have, but there are a couple of new things we are hoping to get hold of. We will have more information about what we can get and the prices next week.


RASPBERRY LICORICE - has been unavailable for a few months again. But the great news is that at a recent Trade Show we found a new manufacturer and supplier by chance. The quality of the product is just fantastic - better than we have ever had before. We can't wait for it to come. The only issue is that it only comes in little pieces, not in long logs like we are used to, so we have to decide on the best way of presenting it to you. We are also going to swap over to this new brand with the traditional black licorice as well, including chocolate coated logs, as the quality is so superior and we know you are going to just love it as much as we do. As far as we can tell, the price will be very similar too, which is another reason to be happy. We have been advised that we will have the Raspberry Licorice in store next week. Yay! 


COCONUT ICE, CARAMEL FUDGE, CHOCOLATE FUDGE we have established a supply of quality hand made slabs and it is selling like hot cakes.


GUMBALLS - we are still chasing a supplier of good quality regular gum balls (not the fizzy ones). The Jamboree gumball tubes are now available again and this is the best we can do until something else turns up.


At the TRADE FAIR we found some stuff that we thought had been deleted and then a few new things as well. We will tell you about them as they slowly turn up in our orders. 


WARNING - manufacturers are starting to advise us that they are about to pass on price increases of approx 10% due to spike in sugar price and transport costs. This rise will take effect in our shop as the new stock comes in over the next couple of weeks. So stock up for Easter ASAP!!!


This months TOP SELLERS are -
Sherbet Cones
Turkish Delight
Raspberry Drops
Fruit Jellies - extra soft and extra delicious
Lemon BonBons - English
Pear Drops - English
Coconut Rough
Hand Made Coconut Ice, Fudge
Mixed Rock - hand made
Super sour acid mix - hand made
Chocolate coated Raspberries - as always!


Happy Munching until next post.
From the Sweets and Treats Team