Fortnum & Mason has launched a new online subscription delivery service, offering members monthly top-ups of its luxury products including tea and biscuits.
The new service – which is called Fortnum’s Dispatch – launched on 4 July, via the retailer’s website.
Fortnum’s is offering three types of subscription, available either on an annual or pay as you go basis. The Tea Post – which costs £100 – offers customers a year’s supply of monthly refills of a choice of Fortnum’s loose leaf tea blends. They also receive a customisable initialled china mug, tin and strainer.
The Biscuit Post, which costs £20 a month, offers refills of Fortnum’s popular Toffolossus, Chocolossus or Gingerloss biscuits, available on either three-month, six-month or 12-month subscriptions. The retailer already offered refill packages of the biscuit at its flagship store and concessions network.
The final subscription, called The Teatime Dispatch, offers a selection of both tea and biscuits, as well as a choice of marmalades or jams, which costs £75 a month.
The products included in each delivery will rotate month on month, Fortnum’s said.
“Forget the election. This is big news,” said Fortnum & Mason CEO Tom Athron.
“Welcome to Fortnum’s Dispatch – launching today – our new subscription service that delivers refills for your tea, your biscuits, your jams, every month for however long you choose.
“This is just the latest tiny chapter in our 317-year history,” Athron said, promising “more great innovation to come”.
The service is the latest effort by high-end Fortnum’s to modernise its offer.
Despite a slump in digital sales in its latest annual results, Fortnum’s e-commerce sales have increased significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aside from its popular hamper delivery service, it’s seen Fortnum’s launch a range of DTC products over the past couple of years, including a breakfast delivery box for corporates that launch in January 2023.
However, the retailer has struggled at times to meet spikes in online demand, causing it to run out of key Christmas lines over the festive period.
In response it’s been working to double its supply chain capacity, by consolidating several of its Midlands distribution centres into a single site in Corby, which is run by its delivery partner IForce.
In October, Fortnum’s resumed deliveries to the EU, after building its own delivery network in Belgium. The new delivery service is currently only available to customers in the UK.
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