Shipping delays may spell bad news for many this Christmas but for Oops, which sells surplus food originally intended for other retailers, it’s set to be a late Christmas bonanza.
Oops repackages food with its own branding, giving manufacturers and suppliers another outlet for products no longer wanted by the intended retail customer.
And the discounter expects 2022 to start with a flood of Christmas lines that arrived in the UK too late.
Oops CEO Noel Davis told The Grocer he was braced for a rush of party food lines such as king prawn rings arriving from Asia up to six weeks late thanks to global shipping delays.
Other lines affected by long shipping delays could include duck spring rolls and tempura prawns, he said. While they could be sold year-round, they were in danger of “arriving into a promotional cycle that was destined for some other products” at the intended retailer.
“Any retailer has a huge selection of party food for Christmas but if it hasn’t arrived by the second week of December they are less likely to take it.” he said.
“It doesn’t take much for it to fall out of retailers’ processing patterns. From our perspective it just means more availability of stock. The big issue for us is how much of this stuff will appear post-Christmas. We’re already aware of a reasonable amount.
“We’ve had confirmation of products being shipped from India that we’ve been advised are delayed by five to six weeks.
“We know of tonnes of prawns delayed by several weeks. Some will be prawn rings that will arrive the last week or so of December and will have missed Christmas.”
Davis said further disruption for manufacturers was coming from delays to the arrival of Christmas packaging. It could result in retailers opting to sell Christmas lines in non-seasonal packaging, he said.
“For any manufacturers that are receiving products from the Far East, they will be prone to delays, whether it’s finished products, packaging, ingredients or the party food itself,” he said.
One major supermarket confirmed to The Grocer it was working with suppliers over a shortage of board affecting packaging. However, there were no “changes to our Christmas packaging”, the retailer said.
Oops opened its first stores, in Bolton and Preston, last year. It now has seven, with an eighth set to open on 9 December, in West Bromwich.
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