CHRISTMAS PLANNING Christmas preparation
with prints and patterns Helen Boardman, product manager at Dexam, highlights how the company is getting ready for the festive period in a Q&A with Housewares Magazine.
What are your Christmas best-sellers? Our best-sellers include kitchen staples such as our mince pie tins. We also see table top textiles, novelty bottle openers and spatulas selling really well over the festive period.
Please introduce yourself. My name is Helen Boardman and I am Dexam’s product manager. I have been with the company for many years and oversee all new product development. This involves trend research, sourcing of materials, forming strong relationships with our factories and the design of our products from inception to production.
Tell us about your range of Christmas products. For 2023 we have three ranges for our customers to choose from. Our Dexam Star includes a range of coordinated (through pattern) kitchen textiles from an adult apron and double oven gloves, to table top textiles such as napkins and runners and kitchen and baking gifts. We have launched a red and natural star print which is lovely for use over Christmas, but can also be used once the festive season is over and won’t look out of place. Our mistletoe range, in partnership with the RHS, was designed from original botanical drawings held in their archives. We have created a modern fresh print which again can be used beyond the festive season and won’t look out of place. The range features kitchen and table top textiles and ceramics. Lastly our most popular range has been our limited-edition Scion Mr Fox Christmas print on a range of textiles and accessories. The print features the cheeky and cheerful Mr Fox wearing woolly hats and Christmas lights.
What is the process of preparing your portfolio before the festive period? We monitor what products are available in shops across the years to get ideas for which products are selling well on a yearly basis. We look at what’s in fashion i.e., colours and prints to help us design the Christmas print for the season. We also design products that are practical and pretty to help consumers dress the Christmas table on the big day. Finally, we look at what has sold in the past and repeat it and sometimes expand on it.
What are the trends for Christmas this year?
It is almost always about dressing the table for the big day. Colours are the same most years – red, green, gold and silver. Also, natural colours combined with wood, pine cones, foliage images and greenery are on trend for 2023 along with traditional images that are retro and nostalgic.
Last year, Dexam introduced a licenced range with Scion Living for Christmas, tell us about the range. What was the response from consumers? Our Scion Mr Fox Christmas range was very well received – so much so that we’ve repeated the limited edition print for this year. Our retail partners and consumers enjoyed the fun element of the design and it appealed to all adults and children!
Moving forward, how will you continue to develop your Christmas range? We will continue to look at what sells well, what’s in fashion and what we believe customers want. I am already in the final stages of designing the special Dexam print for 2024 which will be quite different to the last few years – watch this space!
The perfect Christmas gift
T
he L. Tremain Company, founded in 1995, is a privately-held, family run business based in Los Angeles, CA.
The company’s main focus is to provide unique and time-honoured kitchen tools, gourmet housewares and decorative tabletop lines to consumers worldwide. The very first product line launched by the company was based on a centuries old French butter storage device. The company has taken the traditional French concept, increased its effectiveness and beauty, to create an innovative butter storage unit specifically for the American palate—the Original Butter Bell® Crock. Since its inception in 1995, the Butter Bell® crock has become the most recognized brand of butter crocks in the United States and around the world.
The Original Butter Bell® Crock is a modern version of the authentic French “beurrier”. Made from high quality, durable New Bone China, the Butter Bell crock safely keeps butter at room temperature—on the counter or tabletop—without spoilage, refrigeration or odors. L. Tremain has recreated and improved this natural method of preserving the creamy texture and delicate flavour that makes butter the most desirable and most-used spread in the world. Consumers in the UK can order directly
from
www.butterbell.com and have their order shipped directly to them from its brand-new warehouse in Leicester, UK. Butter Bell crocks are available in a wide variety of colours and patterns, to match your individual style or kitchen decor. The crocks make unique and very useful Christmas gifts for foodies and butter lovers.
26 | October/November 2023
housewareslive.net
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