Londoners predicted to scoff over 149MILLION mince pies this Christmas

Findings reveal that roughly 80% of the population favour a mince pie at Christmas, with the average Brit predicted to enjoy 19 across the entire festive period. And it’s not just Brits that will be enjoying the festive treat - with over 23million homes to visit this year, Santa himself will be enjoying roughly 23,000,000² mince pies during his night shift on the 24th December.

The research, shared by awareness campaign Generation Logistics, highlights the need for supermarkets to meet this demand and have the shelves stocked with mince pies - but what really happens behind the scenes, and how do supermarkets ensure that Brits can all get their fix of the festive treat?

Leading supermarket Asda reveals that it will be stocking 34.2million mince pies across the UK this Christmas. Having landed on the shelves as early as August this year, mince pie lovers have been able to devour them even sooner this year, and show no signs of stopping any time soon.

Bethany Windsor, Programme Director of Generation Logistics, notes: “What may surprise many people is the army of logisticians that are working behind-the-scenes to ensure that mince pies land in the homes of celebrating Brits this Christmas.

“From packaging design and taste testers, to planning and transportation, there are many steps that each festive product, mince pies included, must take to ensure that they’re available for the public to buy.”

But before the mince pie munchers can raid the shelves, there is a carefully coordinated logistics operation, with each role playing its own crucial part. Family favourite, Asda, shares a behind-the-scenes look at how mince pies make it in time for Christmas.

A mince pie’s merry adventure - from bakery to basket:

The festive process begins in the height of summer at Asda House in Leeds, with the Packaging Technologist designing the packaging to perfection. Next stop is the Product Developer, who has the privilege of tasting all of the mince pies before choosing the very finest to sit on Asda’s shelves. The In-Store Cake Buying Manager then agrees the price point and volume, whilst the Demand Planning Manager forecasts how many will be sold (with this year’s prediction sitting at a whopping 29.7million).

Before the mince pies can be sent on their merry way, Asda’s experienced Transport Trainers have to teach the drivers how to deliver the products safely and efficiently. Once all drivers are fully trained, the mince pies are then loaded by Warehouse Colleagues at Rochdale’s Chilled Distribution Centre.

From here, lorries up and down the country deliver mince pies to Asda stores, before Store Assistants line the festive treats across its shelves as early as August.

Bethany continues: “The journey of a mince pie is much more complex than most realise, and the unsung logistician heroes are the UK’s very own real-life elves - working hard to ensure that Brits can enjoy food, drink and presents galore, each and every year.

“The amount of roles needed to complete this task may come as a shock, but what it really demonstrates is the vast amount of workers needed, and the many different career paths that working in logistics can offer. I strongly encourage anybody who may be looking for a rewarding career for life to consider the logistics sector and find out all that it has to offer.”

For those wanting to find out more about the career opportunities available in logistics, take Find Your Future quiz to see which role in logistics could fit with your future: www.generationlogistics.org/find-your-future/